Oracle began another round of layoffs on September 14, with employees receiving termination emails around 6 a.m. The cuts affected Oracle workers across multiple teams during a broader organizational restructuring.
The company linked the terminations to changing business needs while expanding AI infrastructure spending. Employees received the news through email, with some losing system access before reading the message.
The termination message came from Oracle leadership with a blunt conclusion that stated: ‘As a result, today is your last working day.’
Oracle described the move as part of a ‘broader organizational change’ without giving individual reasons for affected roles. The company has not disclosed the total number of employees affected.
Some employees reportedly lost access to Oracle systems around 4 a.m. before the termination emails arrived. Slack access also stopped for some workers between roughly 5 a.m. and 5:30 a.m.
The email instructed affected employees to provide personal email addresses for separation documents. It also directed workers toward DocuSign paperwork covering termination and severance details.
Oracle warned that computer, email, voicemail, and file access would soon disappear. The message also reminded employees against downloading confidential company information.
US employees received four weeks of base pay plus another week for each service year. Business Insider previously reported a potential 26-week cap under Oracle's standard severance plan.
The latest Oracle job cuts follow a much larger workforce reduction during fiscal 2026. Oracle's employee count dropped by about 21,000, or 13%, during that period.
The company ended May with nearly 141,000 employees, compared with 162,000 workers the previous year. Oracle also spent about USD 1.84 billion on severance and restructuring during fiscal 2026.
Oracle has increased its restructuring estimate by another USD 700 million, taking projected costs to around USD 2.8 billion. The latest layoffs therefore form part of a broader cost restructuring effort.
At the same time, Oracle continues pouring billions into AI and cloud infrastructure. The company spent USD 28.5 billion on capital expenditure during fiscal 2027's first quarter.
Oracle maintained its full-year capital spending forecast between USD 90 billion and USD 95 billion. Cloud infrastructure revenue also jumped 121% year over year to USD 7.4 billion.
The spending surge highlights the central tension behind Oracle restructuring. The company is expanding AI capacity aggressively while reducing payroll and controlling rising financial pressure.
Industry experts also caution against blaming every technology layoff directly on AI. Dr Abhinav P Tripathi said AI explains only part of the current workforce reduction.
‘Around a quarter to a third of this wave represents genuine task replacement through AI,’ Tripathi told NDTV. He attributed the remaining cuts largely to cost resets and workforce restructuring.
Oracle's latest move therefore reflects more than automation alone. It shows how AI investment, restructuring and cost discipline are reshaping technology teams at the same time.