Oracle Layoffs: Oracle to start layoffs which may go up to 30,000 as company faces cash crunch to meet its commitment to Sam Altman’s OpenAI for… |
Oracle is planning to cut thousands of jobs across divisions as it scrambles to manage a worsening cash crunch from its ambitious—and increasingly expensive—AI data centre expansion, Bloomberg reports. The layoffs, which could begin as early as this month, would mark the company’s largest-ever restructuring. Oracle disclosed in a September filing that the plan could cost up to $1.6 billion in the current fiscal year, including severance payouts—significantly more than any previous round of cuts the company has undertaken.The reductions will span multiple business units, with some targeting roles Oracle believes will be made redundant by AI, according to people familiar with the matter. The company has also frozen or slowed hiring across its cloud division after internally announcing a review of open job listings this week. Oracle, which had about 162,000 employees globally as of May 2025, declined to comment. Planning for the cuts is still active and the scope could change, Bloomberg noted.
Larry Ellison ‘s $300 billion OpenAI bet is bleeding cash—and Wall Street has noticed
The financial pressure traces back to Chairman Larry Ellison’s push to remake Oracle from a legacy database software company into a credible AI cloud rival to Amazon and Microsoft. Central to that ambition is a $300 billion partnership with OpenAI that TD Cowen estimates will require $156 billion in capital spending and roughly 3 million GPUs.Oracle has already burned through $58 billion in new debt in just two months—$38 billion for data centres in Texas and Wisconsin, $20 billion more for a campus in New Mexico. Total debt now sits north of $100 billion. Wall Street projects Oracle’s free cash flow will go negative over the next few years, with the spending not expected to pay off until around 2030. Last month, Oracle said it would raise up to $50 billion this year through debt and equity sales.The stock reflects the pressure. After gaining 61% in 2024 and 20% last year, Oracle shares have fallen 54% from their September 2025 peak—wiping out roughly $463 billion in market cap. The slide continued Thursday, with the stock slipping as much as 1.5% after Bloomberg’s report.
Oracle isn’t alone—AI’s cash demands are forcing layoffs across tech
Oracle isn’t alone. Amazon cut 16,000 jobs in January this year, only months after it had laid off 14,000 employees last October. Microsoft cut around 15,000 employees last year amid its own data centre spending surge. Salesforce has cut thousands of jobs in the past year. Block slashed half its workforce last week, amounting to 3,500 employees, with co-founder Jack Dorsey citing AI-driven efficiency gains.TD Cowen had earlier flagged potential Oracle layoffs of 20,000 to 30,000, estimating the cuts could free up $8 to $10 billion in cash flow. Several US banks have also quietly pulled back from Oracle-linked data centre financing, with interest rate premiums on the company’s debt roughly doubling since September. The company is also reportedly requiring new customers to pay up to 40% of contract value upfront and is said to be exploring a sale of Cerner, the healthcare software unit it acquired for $28.3 billion in 2022—a move that would signal just how squarely Oracle’s priorities have shifted toward AI infrastructure.Oracle is scheduled to report fiscal third-quarter earnings on March 10.
