Oracle Layoffs: Employees Get 6 AM Emails Saying Today Is Their Last Working Day

Oracle is cutting jobs as it ramps up spending on artificial intelligence, putting its latest workforce reduction in the middle of a much larger shift taking place inside the company.

For some employees, the news came without much warning. An email reportedly reached employees at around 6 am and told them that the day would be their last at Oracle. "We are sharing some difficult news regarding your position... Today is your last working day."

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The company did not reveal how many people were included in this latest round. The email described the move as part of a "broader organisational change", without giving employees a specific explanation for why their individual roles were being eliminated.

There was also little time to prepare for the separation. Employees were told that their access to Oracle's computers, email, voicemail and files would be deactivated. They were asked to provide a personal email address so they could receive information about severance and other documents related to their departure.

The layoffs were first reported by Business Insider.

Billions Are Going Into Oracle's AI Push

The timing of the cuts is notable because Oracle is spending more money than ever on the infrastructure needed to keep up with AI demand.

During the first quarter of fiscal 2027, Oracle's capital expenditure reached $28.5 billion. A year earlier, the company had spent $8.5 billion in the same quarter. In other words, its spending has more than tripled in just a year.

Oracle is not slowing down either. It has maintained its full-year capital expenditure guidance at $90 billion to $95 billion.

There is a reason for that spending. Oracle said it signed more than $30 billion in additional AI cloud contracts during the quarter, highlighting how quickly demand for computing capacity is growing.

The problem is that building the data centres and other infrastructure needed to support those contracts requires enormous amounts of cash. Oracle reported negative free cash flow of $5.4 billion for the quarter.

That creates a difficult situation for the company. Oracle wants to spend aggressively while AI demand is growing, but it also has to control its costs at the same time.

Thousands Of Jobs Have Already Gone

The latest cuts are not Oracle's first major workforce reduction.

The company ended fiscal 2026 with around 1,41,000 employees globally, compared with approximately 1,62,000 a year earlier. That means its workforce fell by about 21,000 people, or roughly 13 per cent, during the year.

The restructuring has also been expensive. Oracle spent around $1.84 billion on severance payments and other restructuring costs during fiscal 2026. The company has previously pointed to AI adoption and deployment as some of the factors behind the workforce reduction.

Its restructuring bill is still growing. Oracle recently added another $700 million to its expected restructuring costs, taking the estimated cost of its fiscal 2026 restructuring programme to approximately $2.8 billion.

So, the latest layoffs are better understood as another part of a continuing restructuring effort rather than a standalone decision to trim expenses.

Oracle Is Part Of A Bigger Layoff Wave

The pressure on Oracle employees reflects a trend that is spreading across the technology industry.

More than 6,000 tech jobs were reportedly eliminated in just the first 10 days of September. The companies associated with those cuts include Uber, PayPal, Apple, Zomato and Oracle.

The numbers for the year are even more striking. Layoffs.fyi data shows that 1,28,536 technology workers across 299 companies had been laid off globally by September 10.

That figure has already overtaken the total recorded for all of 2025. Last year, 1,22,606 tech employees across 278 companies were laid off.

AI is increasingly becoming part of the conversation around these workforce changes. Goldman Sachs estimates that 6 per cent to 7 per cent of jobs in the US could be at risk if AI adoption becomes widespread. Software development, customer service and administrative roles are among those with greater exposure.

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The impact may already be showing up among younger workers. A Stanford Digital Economy Lab study using ADP payroll data found that employment among workers aged 22 to 25 in highly AI-exposed occupations was 19 per cent below the level it would have reached relative to workers in less-exposed jobs.

For Oracle, the contradiction is particularly visible. The company is spending tens of billions of dollars to build its AI and cloud business, while at the same time asking thousands of employees to leave as part of its broader restructuring.