Job cuts hit Oracle (NYSE: ORCL) again this week. Three workers who lost their jobs Monday described the cuts to reporters, who also reviewed a termination email the company had sent.
The email attributed the job losses to a broader reorganization and closed with the line “today is your last working day” — the same phrase Oracle used when it laid off thousands of workers in March. It also directed recipients to send Oracle a personal email address so the company could reach them about severance after it revoked their access to internal systems.
The company had already cut 21,000 positions, or 13% of its headcount, in the fiscal year that ended May 31, leaving it with about 141,000 workers. They have not confirmed how many roles this round eliminates.
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Managers were reportedly told in August to identify employees for elimination, with some teams losing more than 10% of staff, ahead of its new fiscal quarter, which began September 1. That date passed without any announcement, and employees spent two weeks guessing when word would finally arrive.
On June 22, Oracle executive chairman Larry Ellison arranged to sell a 50-million-share stake worth roughly $7.5 billion, then canceled the plan the same day the new layoffs began. Oracle raised its projected fiscal 2026 restructuring costs to about $2.8 billion, an increase of $700 million from its earlier estimate.
Read: Oracle Names New CFO With $29.7 Million Package Amid Mass Layoffs and $50 Billion AI Buildout
The company’s shares slid Monday, in step with a broader market retreat, even as the company keeps expanding its AI commitments. Its pile of revenue locked in under contract but not yet booked grew to $664 billion, up $26 billion, and Oracle is still guiding investors to expect $90 billion to $95 billion in capital spending next fiscal year.
Spending has run well ahead of what the company takes in — $55.7 billion on infrastructure in fiscal 2026, more than double the $21.2 billion spent the year before. Free cash flow for the year came in at negative $23.7 billion, a gap Oracle closed in part by taking on $43 billion in new debt and issuing another $5 billion in equity.
Oracle’s fiscal 2026 annual report ties the job cuts directly to its AI push, saying the shift toward AI use inside the company has already led to workforce reductions and could lead to more.
