Oracle cuts 21,000 jobs as it embraces AI

business technology layoffs & labor artificial intelligence

Oracle's global workforce fell to 141,000 full-time employees as of May 31, 2026, down from 162,000 a year earlier. This represents a net reduction of roughly 21,000 people, or about 13% of the total workforce, during fiscal 2026.

The company attributed these reductions to the adoption and deployment of AI technologies across its operations. In an annual regulatory filing, Oracle stated that these technologies have resulted, and may continue to result, in workforce reductions as the cloud computing giant continues to restructure its business.

Oracle is currently spending billions on data center infrastructure to support AI for customers such as OpenAI. This expensive build-out has placed the company under financial pressure.

These cuts are part of a wider trend among tech firms, which are currently spending hundreds of billions of dollars on artificial intelligence.

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