Oracle Plans To Cut 30,000 Jobs to Fund Massive AI Data Centre - Report
US technology major Oracle is weighing one of the largest job cuts in its history, with plans to lay off between 20,000 and 30,000 employees and potentially divest parts of its business to finance an ambitious expansion of its artificial intelligence (AI) data centre capacity, according to a new report.
A report by CIO, citing investment bank TD Cowen, said Oracle had already reduced its workforce by around 10,000 employees in late 2025 as part of a $1.6 billion restructuring programme. If the proposed additional layoffs go ahead, the total reduction would mark the biggest round of job cuts in the company’s recent history.
TD Cowen estimates that the planned workforce reduction could unlock between $8 billion and $10 billion in cash flow, helping Oracle fund its aggressive AI-driven infrastructure buildout.
The report noted that both equity and debt investors have raised concerns about Oracle’s ability to finance the expansion. Several US banks have reportedly pulled back from lending for the project, pushing the company to explore cost-cutting measures, including layoffs.
“Multiple Oracle data-centre leases that were under negotiation with private operators struggled to secure financing, in turn preventing Oracle from securing the data-centre capacity via a lease,” the report said.
Oracle has not yet commented on the report.
According to the research house, Oracle’s capital expenditure requirement for the AI data centre initiative is estimated at around $156 billion. To ease the financial burden, the company is evaluating multiple options, including the possible sale of its healthcare software unit Cerner, which Oracle acquired for $28.3 billion in 2022.
Oracle has also reportedly asked new customers to provide their own hardware under a “bring your own chip” model. The company has told investors that it expects to raise between $45 billion and $50 billion in 2026 to build additional cloud infrastructure capacity.
The developments come amid a broader wave of job cuts across the US tech sector. Recently, Amazon reportedly laid off about 16,000 employees as part of its AI-led restructuring. In October 2025, Amazon had already reduced its white-collar workforce by 14,000, accounting for nearly half of its total planned 30,000 job cuts.
While the move marked Amazon’s largest layoff in its three-decade history after the 27,000 job cuts announced in 2022, it still represented a relatively small share of its total workforce of around 1.58 million employees.
