Oracle eliminated roughly 21,000 positions, about 13 per cent of its workforce, in fiscal 2026 and paid $1.84 billion in severance, multiple reports said. The cuts ran alongside a record $55.7 billion in capital spending on AI infrastructure.

The company’s own SEC filing states that AI adoption ‘has resulted, and may continue to result, in reductions to our workforce’. Oracle’s headcount fell from about 162,000 to 141,000. Free cash flow was a negative $23.7 billion.

On September 14, thousands of employees received termination emails with no meeting with managers, according to a video report. Cerner and Oracle Health took some of the heaviest hits, along with cloud infrastructure and consulting teams.

The layoff wave is industry-wide. Skillsyncer counts 225,122 technology job losses across 519 events in 2026 so far, already more than all of 2025. AI was cited in 33 per cent of tech layoff events this year, up from 1 per cent in 2024.

A new round of thousands more cuts was reported in mid-September. Oracle’s debt-fuelled AI buildout continues into fiscal 2027.