AI Took Their Jobs? Oracle Cuts More Jobs With Early-Morning Emails Amid $90 Billion AI Bet

New Delhi: Oracle has reportedly initiated another wave of job cuts, with impacted staff receiving an email in the early hours informing them that their positions had been removed as part of an organisational overhaul. According to a report by Business Insider, the fresh round of reductions began on Monday, drawing a flurry of posts from affected workers across LinkedIn, Reddit and Blind detailing their job losses. 

In its report, Business Insider claimed to have spoken directly with 3 employees impacted by the latest move and had examined an internal memo circulated to staff. Though, the technology giant has not revealed the scale of the current layoffs, leaving the total number of employees affected unclear.

The timing of the cuts is particularly notable as Oracle is aggressively scaling its data centre footprint to cater to surging demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing, even as it tightens the cost structure and reshapes teams.

Capital expenditure surged to $28.5 billion in the first quarter of fiscal 2027, over triple the $8.5 billion spent during the corresponding period a year earlier. The firm has reiterated the full-year capex guidance of between $90 billion and $95 billion. Although demand remains robust, with over $30 billion in fresh AI cloud deals signed in the quarter pushing the total remaining performance obligations to $664 billion, the build-out is proving costly. The company posted a negative free cash flow of $5.4 billion for the quarter as data centre investments continued to mount.

Despite the spend, growth is evident as the first-quarter revenue climbed 30% year-on-year to $19.3 billion, while cloud infrastructure revenue soared 121% to $7.4 billion, outlining the tension between expansion and efficiency.

21,000 Jobs Already Gone And Restructuring Bill Hits $2.8 Billion

Notably, the latest move is not the first major retrenchment at Oracle this year. During fiscal 2026, which concluded on May 31, the global headcount contracted by around 21,000, or 13%, falling to roughly 1,41,000 from about 1,62,000 a year earlier, as per the annual filing.

The reduction came at a heavy price as Oracle incurred $1.84 billion in severance and other exit-related costs linked to restructuring in fiscal 2026, up sharply from $374 million the year before. The company has attributed part of the workforce rationalisation to the adoption and deployment of AI across the operations.

As per reports, the restructuring programme itself has become more expensive for the IT giant. Last week, Oracle disclosed that it was adding $700 million to the anticipated restructuring expenses, lifting the total estimated cost of the fiscal 2026 plan to about $2.8 billion, covering severance, contract termination fees and other exit charges. By 31 August, it had already booked $2.1 billion in charges under the plan, with the additional amount earmarked for further actions still to be undertaken.

Layoffs Were Anticipated As Debt-Fuelled AI Push Continues

The industry experts had been anticipating another round of cuts, with speculation mounting that Oracle would trim payroll to offset substantial debt taken on to fund the AI infrastructure push. The latest notification appears to confirm that at least some of those reductions are now underway.

According to reports, employees were informed that their roles had been eliminated as part of a “broader organisational change” and that the day they received the notification would be their final working day at the company.

Meanwhile, the move came as another difficult chapter for the employees in a year defined by deep workforce shifts, even though Oracle called it a balancing act, cutting costs on one hand while placing one of its largest ever bets on AI-driven cloud growth.