Oracle laid off 21,000 employees over the past year, citing AI as one of the reasons
Oracle’s annual regulatory filing reveals a 21,000-employee reduction year-over-year, with AI adoption cited as a contributing factor. The company has spent $1.8 billion on restructuring costs, including severance.
Oracle disclosed in its annual regulatory filing that it employed approximately 141,000 people worldwide as of May 31, 2026 — a decrease of 21,000 employees from the 162,000 it employed during the same period last year. Of its current full-time workforce, 49,000 are based in the U.S. and 92,000 internationally. The filing did not specify how many U.S. employees were let go.
The company stated that it has an ongoing restructuring plan and will continue to adjust its workforce. It acknowledged that the “adoption and deployment of AI technologies” across its operations “have resulted, and may continue to result, in reductions” to its headcount. Oracle has already incurred $1.8 billion in restructuring costs, which include severance payments for laid-off employees.
According to Bloomberg, Oracle cut thousands of jobs to free up cash for AI data center buildouts. Other tech companies have taken similar steps: Microsoft reduced headcount to fund AI infrastructure costs, and Meta laid off 8,000 employees while reassigning 7,000 to AI-focused roles. Oracle is building data centers for clients, notably OpenAI, which last year struck a deal for 4.5 gigawatts of U.S. data center capacity to support its large language models.
