Oracle cut around 21,000 jobs over the past year as the company reshapes itself around artificial intelligence. The cuts represent about 13% of its global workforce.
The company's latest annual report, filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, shows Oracle employed roughly 141,000 full-time workers as of May 31, 2026. That is down from about 162,000 at the same point last year.
Of the current workforce, around 49,000 employees are based in the United States. About 92,000 work in other countries.
Oracle said in its filing that the "deployment of AI technologies across our operations have resulted, and may continue to result, in reductions to our workforce." The company warned further cuts are possible.
A Costly Restructuring
The layoffs came with a hefty bill. Oracle spent approximately $1.8 billion on severance payments and other restructuring costs over the past year. That is nearly five times the $374 million it spent on restructuring the year before.
Oracle acknowledged the process "can be disruptive." The company flagged a risk that the reorganization could create shortages in skilled workers, which could hurt productivity and affect earnings.
In a statement to the BBC, Oracle said it would "continually balance our resources" as its cloud and AI businesses grow.
Oracle's AI Push
The job cuts come as Oracle races to build out data centers for major AI companies including OpenAI and Meta. The company planned to spend at least $50 billion on infrastructure this year alone.
Oracle is co-founded and still led as chief technology officer by Larry Ellison, one of the wealthiest people in the world.
Despite the layoffs, Oracle continues to invest heavily in cloud infrastructure and AI-driven services, which it sees as its main growth areas in the years ahead.
Oracle is not alone. Amazon and Meta have also cut thousands of jobs in recent months while pouring money into AI. More than 100,000 tech workers have been laid off across the industry in the past year, according to employment tracking estimates.
Amazon plans to spend $200 billion on AI investments over the next year, the most of any major tech company. It has also said it will cut around 30,000 jobs across several rounds of layoffs.
Google, Amazon, and Meta together plan to invest roughly $650 billion in AI this year.
Oracle's market capitalization has dropped about 10% since the start of 2026, now sitting at approximately $530 billion. Analysts say that reflects both the internal restructuring and broader uncertainty in the tech sector over AI's pace of returns.
The full scale of Oracle's layoffs was not publicly known until its annual report was filed, though senior employees had posted about cuts as far back as April 2026.
