Oracle Cuts Thousands of Jobs in 6 AM Email Shock, India Among the Most Affected
The tech giant has started what analysts believe could be the largest workforce reduction in its 47-year history, driven by its aggressive and debt-heavy push into AI infrastructure.
On the morning of Tuesday, 31 March 2026, thousands of Oracle employees around the world woke up to a short, blunt email that ended their careers at the company in seconds. It came from "Oracle Leadership", and it read: "After careful consideration of Oracle's current business needs, we have made the decision to eliminate your role as part of a broader organisational change. As a result, today is your last working day."
No prior HR call. No conversation with a manager. Just an email, and immediately, locked accounts.
CNBC confirmed the cuts with two people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because the announcement had not been made public. Oracle declined to comment.
How Many People Has Oracle Let Go, and Which Teams Were Hit Hardest?
Oracle has not issued any official public statement confirming the scale of the cuts. Investment bank TD Cowen has estimated the cuts will hit between 20,000 and 30,000 employees, roughly 18% of Oracle's global workforce of approximately 162,000 people.
Oracle employs about 162,000 people globally, with around 58,000 in the US and approximately 104,000 internationally. One screenshot purporting to show the number of internal Slack users showed a drop of 10,000 overnight.
Among the units hit hardest, according to employee posts, were teams in Oracle's Revenue and Health Sciences division and its SaaS and Virtual Operations Services group, each reportedly seeing workforce cuts of at least 30%. NetSuite's India Development Centre was also affected, with reductions across project management and engineering roles at multiple levels.
According to posts from Oracle workers on LinkedIn, cuts were spread through multiple departments, with employees in Kansas, Tennessee, and Texas among those who took to social media to confirm they were affected.
A senior Oracle manager, Michael Shepherd, stated the layoffs were "not performance-based" and that affected employees were not let go due to individual shortcomings.
Oracle Layoffs 2026 Snapshot
| Aspect | Details |
|---|---|
| Date of layoffs | 31 March 2026 |
| Nature of action | Workforce reduction (role eliminations) |
| Communication method | Email notifications (early morning in several cases) |
| Official layoff numbers | Not disclosed by Oracle |
| Reported scale | “Thousands” (as per media reports, not officially confirmed) |
| Analyst estimates | 20,000–30,000 (unverified, based on TD Cowen analysis) |
| India impact | Reported in multiple cities including Bengaluru; exact numbers unclear |
| Reason for layoffs | Restructuring linked to AI and cloud infrastructure investments |
| Official company statement | Not issued publicly as of now |
| Known confirmed filing | 491 layoffs in Washington state (WARN filing) |
| Industry context | Part of broader tech shift towards AI-driven operations |
India Hit Significantly, Bengaluru and Hyderabad Operations Affected
India is confirmed as one of the most impacted locations. According to sources familiar with the matter, Oracle has 50,000 employees in India across all lines of business. More than 2,500 local staff have been affected, though a source described the India figures as being "in the low thousands." Oracle India did not respond to a request for comment.
Oracle has significant operations across Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and other major Indian technology hubs, employing engineers, developers, cloud infrastructure specialists, sales professionals, and support staff across its enterprise software, cloud computing, database, and hardware divisions.
Some employee accounts, reported by PTI and carried by Business Standard on 31 March, put the India figure much higher, at around 12,000, and warned of a further round of cuts within a month. It must be noted that the 12,000 India figure is based on accounts from affected employees rather than official company confirmation.
The severance package in India includes 15 days' salary for each year of service, notice pay, leave encashment, gratuity where applicable, and an additional two-month salary top-up, though this is contingent on voluntary resignation.
Why Is Oracle Cutting Jobs? The AI Data Centre Gamble
This is not a company in financial distress in any conventional sense. Oracle posted a 95% jump in net income, reaching $6.13 billion last quarter, even as its stock has lost more than half its value since reaching a peak in September 2025.
The real pressure comes from Oracle's enormous bet on AI infrastructure. Oracle has taken on $58 billion in new debt recently, pushing total debt over $100 billion, as it races to build AI data centres. Restructuring costs for this fiscal year are expected to reach up to $1.6 billion, largely for employee severance.
In January, Oracle announced plans to raise $50 billion in debt and equity. During last month's earnings call, executives said there were no further plans to raise debt in 2026.
Co-CEO Clay Magouyrk sought to reassure investors, saying Oracle is committed to maintaining its investment-grade debt rating and that the costs of running its data centres will continue to improve over time.
In a March earnings call, Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison told investors he believed the threat posed by AI to traditional software would hurt other companies, but not Oracle.
What Comes Next for Oracle and Its Workers?
Oracle did not confirm or deny the layoffs on its Q3 fiscal 2026 earnings call and has made no public statement on the events of 31 March.
Oracle has announced plans to invest around $50 billion in AI infrastructure and has raised an equivalent amount in debt to fund further investments.
For the thousands of workers affected, many of whom found out before sunrise with no warning and no human conversation, the company's AI ambitions offer little comfort. They were informed by a single email, and the chapter closed before most people had finished their morning coffee.
Nitin Konde