Oracle Eliminates 21,000 Positions in 12 Months Amid AI Transformation

The most recent annual report from the US IT titan Oracle shows that as part of its transformation around artificial intelligence (AI), the company cut over 21,000 jobs worldwide in the past year. As of May 31, 2026, the software and cloud computing company reported 141,000 full-time employees, a decrease from 162,000 the previous year.

Oracle announced in its annual financial regulatory filing on June 22 that it had reduced its personnel and may continue to do so as a result of the adoption and deployment of artificial intelligence technologies throughout its business. About $1.8 billion in restructuring expenditures were incurred as a result of the reductions.

Oracle Under Severe Financial Pressure

Oracle is facing financial challenges as a result of the costly expansion of its artificial intelligence data centres to accommodate clients such as OpenAI. In an attempt to conserve money, it started laying off thousands of workers earlier this year. The precise magnitude of the layoffs was never officially announced. The firm employed around 49,000 people in the United States and roughly 92,000 people in other countries as of the end of May.

After purchasing Cerner, an organisation specialising in electronic health records, in 2022, the company's headcount was slightly smaller than it is now. Numerous new hires, numbering in the thousands, were located in and around Cerner's headquarters in the Kansas City area as a result of the $28 billion acquisition. Oracle stated that its restructuring initiatives "may be disruptive". The company expressed concern that certain positions could get vacant as a result of the rearrangement, which could reduce productivity and ultimately affect its profits.

Oracle, in contrast to these IT giants, has been forced to resort to burning cash and issuing debt in order to pay its significant expenditures, rather than large cash flows. A little over 10% of the company's stock fell this year. In its current fiscal year, Oracle anticipates a net capital expenditure of approximately $70 billion, as stated earlier this month. That will be paid for by $40 billion in debt and equity, with $20 billion of that coming from a stock offering that was already planned.

Companies Opting for AI Over Humans

In order to fund their investments in AI, many companies have cut their workforces, which is often the largest expense for digital firms. Approximately $650 billion will be invested in the technology this year by Google, Amazon, and Meta together. The largest investment in artificial intelligence (AI) among the major internet corporations will be made by Amazon, which aims to spend $200 billion over the next year.

More than 1.5 million people across the globe work for the digital and e-commerce titan, and it has announced plans to lay off over 30,000 workers over the course of multiple rounds. Amazon needed to be structured "more leanly", according to a top executive who wrote that in an internal memo last October. That action is necessary, the executive said, because artificial intelligence is letting businesses innovate at a rate never seen before.