Oracle to Lay Off 30,000 Employees Amid AI Data Center Investments

Oracle layoffs 2026: Why is Larry Ellison-led firm laying off 30,000 employees and how is OpenAI linked to it?Oracle Corporation is preparing to implement a mass layoff that could affect thousands of employees across several divisions, according to a Bloomberg report. The job cuts may begin as soon as this month.

The move is reportedly a part of efforts to manage a cash crunch linked to Oracle's massive spending on AI data centres, a key area of investment as technology firms race to build infrastructure for AI services.

Apart from the layoffs, Oracle has also internally informed staff this week that it would be reassessing many of the open job listings in its cloud division, effectively slowing down or temporarily halting new hiring. It is still unclear which specific departments will be affected by the mass layoffs at Oracle.

More details on the nature of the job cuts are awaited. However, two people aware of the matter told the news agency that some of the job cuts will be aimed at job categories that the company expects to become redundant due to artificial intelligence. The company had about 162,000 employees globally as of the end of May 2025.