21,000 Oracle employees lost their jobs in one year

According to the annual report for fiscal year 2026 (June 1, 2025 - May 31, 2026) announced by Oracle on June 22, the company currently has 141,000 employees, lower than 162,000 in the same period last year. The number also marks the first time in many years that the number of employees of the US software company is below 150,000.

Oracle said it spent $1.84 billion on severance payments and restructuring activities in fiscal 2026, many times the $374 million of fiscal 2025. The personnel adjustments were in response to many factors such as management and product changes, performance issues, AI, strategic shifts and acquisitions.

Oracle did not comment when contacted by Reuters.

The large number of employee cuts was made public by Oracle after months of leaks. In April, CNBC quoted an internal source saying that the US software manufacturer sent a notice of staff reduction with a number affecting "thousands of workers". According to Business Insider, thousands of Oracle employees received resignation emails, effective the same day from March 31.

CNBC estimates that mass layoffs help Oracle save $8-10 billion in cash, thereby investing in artificial intelligence infrastructure and expanding cooperation with strategic partners. Recently, the company signed data center agreements with OpenAI and Meta to compete with rivals such as Amazon or Microsoft.

However, Oracle's recent changes have not been highly appreciated by investors, as the stock has decreased by 10% since the beginning of the year. In early June, the company said it expected net capital expenditures of about $70 billion in fiscal 2026.

Fears of losing jobs due to AI are considered to be increasingly widespread as many businesses cite this technology as a reason to streamline labor. This year alone, Meta, Microsoft and Cloudflare have cut thousands of employees to focus resources on investing in artificial intelligence as well as applying AI agents to replace humans. Statistics from the human resources tracking website Layoffs.fyi show that 196 technology companies have laid off more than 119,800 employees this year alone, as of June 23.

Bao Lam compiled