oracle CNBC has confirmed that the company has begun telling employees it will cut thousands of jobs as it deals with a plummeting stock price as it injects massive amounts of capital into building out its AI infrastructure.
While Oracle’s core business has been hit by market panic over competitive risks from generative artificial intelligence models, the company has also faced pressure from investors over the amount of debt it is raising for AI investments and declining cash flow.
Business Insider reported on the latest layoffs early Tuesday. CNBC confirmed the cuts to two people familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity because the announcement has not been made public.
Oracle, which employed 162,000 people as of May 2025, declined to comment. The company’s stock price has fallen 26% this year, outpacing the decline of all large-cap tech stocks.
Oracle continues to sell its flagship database for storing and serving corporate information. In recent years, alongside its cloud rivals, AmazonThe company has gradually increased its capital expenditures as it builds out data center infrastructure capable of handling AI workloads. But Oracle is small compared to its cloud peers.
Oracle has relied on the bond market to fund its expansion. In January, Oracle announced plans to raise $50 billion in debt and equity. In last month’s earnings call, executives said there were no more plans to raise debt in 2026.
In September, Oracle revealed that its remaining performance obligations, a measure of unrecognized contract revenue, jumped 359% to $455 billion following a contract with OpenAI worth more than $300 billion. A few weeks later, Oracle selected executives Mike Sicilia and Clay Magwiruk to replace Safra Catz as CEO.
TD Cowen analysts said in a January note that cutting 20,000 to 30,000 employees could increase free cash flow by $8 billion to $10 billion.
Executives say investments in AI will pay off over time.
“Demand for AI infrastructure in both GPUs and CPUs continues to outstrip supply,” Magwik said on an earnings call earlier this month. “This is directly reflected in our remaining performance obligations of $553 billion.”
Attention: Oracle lays off ‘thousands’ of employees, officials involved
