Oracle continues to ramp up AI investments, with a new round of layoffs affecting thousands of employees.

Key Takeaways

• Two insiders confirmed to CNBC that Oracle is carrying out a round of layoffs.
• Sources said the layoffs number in the thousands.
• The software vendor continues to ramp up investment in data center infrastructure that can support artificial intelligence workloads.

Two people familiar with the matter told CNBC that software company Oracle has begun notifying employees that the company is conducting a round of layoffs.

Because the discussion involves confidential information, the two individuals who asked not to be named said that the number of layoffs is in the thousands.

As of May 2025, Oracle’s total global headcount is 162,000.

So far this year, Oracle’s stock price has fallen 27%, as investors worry about the competitive risks posed by generative artificial intelligence models, as well as the impact of infrastructure investment on the company’s cash flow.

Oracle declined to comment on this.

While continuing to promote its flagship database business for storing and delivering enterprise information, Oracle has significantly increased capital expenditures to build data center infrastructure capable of supporting artificial intelligence workloads.

In September this year, Oracle disclosed that after reaching an agreement worth more than $300 billion with OpenAI, the company’s remaining performance obligations (a metric for unrecognized contract revenue) surged 359% to $455 billion. A few weeks later, Oracle appointed executives Michael Ciciellia and Clay Maguil to serve as CEO, replacing Safra Katz.

Oracle has long relied on the bond market to finance expansion projects. In January, the company announced a plan to raise $50 billion through debt issuance and equity financing. In last month’s earnings call, Oracle executives said there are no plans for additional debt issuance in 2026.

In a report in January, a team of analysts at TD Cowen led by Michael Elias wrote that if the company lays off 20,000 to 30,000 people, it could generate an incremental free cash flow of $8 billion to $10 billion.

Company executives have said that investment in the artificial intelligence space will ultimately pay off. “The market’s demand for two types of AI infrastructure—GPUs and CPUs—has continued to far outstrip supply, which is reflected very clearly in our remaining performance obligations of $553 billion.” Maguil said during the earnings call.

Earlier on Tuesday, Business Insider was the first to report on the news regarding Oracle’s layoff notifications.

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责任编辑：郭明煜