Oracle sheds 21,000 roles over past year amid tech giant AI layoffs
The logo of software and hardware manufacturer Oracle can be seen at its headquarters in Germany.
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Seer As tech giants carry out sweeping layoffs as a result of AI, they shed 21,000 jobs last year, or almost 13% of their workforce.
The company’s total workforce is 141,000 full-time employees as of May 2026, it said in its annual regulatory filing on Monday. This figure is down from 162,000 employees in the same period last year. This represents a reduction of almost 13% in the total workforce.
Oracle’s shares were last down 3.6% in premarket trading and are down 15.4% since the beginning of the year. This drop comes amid a global tech sell-off.
Oracle has been splitting its shares year-to-date.
“The adoption and deployment of artificial intelligence technologies across our operations has resulted and may continue to result in a reduction in our workforce,” Oracle said in the filing.
The company spent $1.8 billion on restructuring costs, including severance pay and other exit expenses; That’s a jump from the $374 million it spent on restructuring the year before.
Oracle said workforce changes could be “devastating,” including increased restructuring costs and reduced productivity.
“Such restructurings can also lead to shortages of adequately qualified employees in certain roles, loss of valuable organizational knowledge, and harm to employee morale and retention.” he said.
Oracle told employees in March it would lay off thousands as it faced investor pressure to borrow large amounts of debt to build out its AI infrastructure.
In January, Oracle announced plans to raise $50 billion in debt and equity. Meanwhile, free cash flow was negative $23.7 billion last fiscal year, while capital expenditures rose 162% to $55.7 billion.
Oracle joins many tech giants including: Meta, Google, Microsoft And AmazonThose have announced capital spending plans that could reach $700 billion to support AI data center developments.
Meta laid off 8,000 employees, or 10% of its workforce, in May; CEO Mark Zuckerberg told employees that “success is not guaranteed” in the age of artificial intelligence. Meanwhile, Microsoft began offering voluntary buyouts to 7% of its U.S. employees in April.
AI was responsible for more than 50,000 job cuts in the US by 2025; including large companies sales force And IBM’s thousands of roles being cut.
CNBC has reached out to Oracle for comment.
