Oracle began a new round of layoffs on Monday when employees received 6 a.m. termination emails citing "broader organizational change," according to Business Insider, which reviewed the notification and spoke with three affected workers. It is the company's third workforce reduction in 2026 and comes three days after Oracle held its fiscal 2027 capital expenditure forecast at $90 billion to $95 billion, almost entirely tied to AI data centers.
- New round of cuts
- Third workforce reduction at Oracle in 2026, with 6 a.m. termination emails on Monday, September 14, 2026
- Prior-year cuts
- 21,000 full-time positions eliminated in fiscal year 2026 (13 percent of global headcount), with $1.84 billion in severance and restructuring costs
- First-quarter capex
- $28.5 billion in capital expenditures in fiscal Q1 2027, up from $8.5 billion a year earlier
- Full-year capex forecast
- $90 billion to $95 billion for fiscal 2027, almost entirely for AI data centers
A third round inside a calendar year
The Monday email, reviewed by Business Insider, told employees that "after careful consideration of Oracle's current business needs, we have made the decision to eliminate your role as part of a broader organizational change." The memo said "today is your last working day" and instructed workers to sign termination paperwork immediately to qualify for a severance package that would be sent via DocuSign. Affected employees were offered four weeks of base salary plus one week per year of service, according to documents reviewed by the outlet.
The new round follows two earlier cuts this year. Oracle eliminated 21,000 full-time positions, roughly 13 percent of its global headcount, according to a recent filing, in the fiscal year that ended May 31, 2026. The company reported spending $1.84 billion on severance and restructuring during that fiscal year. Oracle had about 141,000 employees before the current round, according to its corporate website.
On Monday, posts on LinkedIn, Reddit, and Blind from people claiming to be Oracle employees joined the trickle of public disclosures, according to Business Insider. A source with knowledge of the plan told the outlet the new round had been expected to begin that day, and that managers had previously been instructed to submit lists of affected workers before the company's fiscal second quarter, which started September 1.
Capital spending is rising while payroll falls
Oracle's headcount decisions are moving in the opposite direction of its infrastructure bill. The company reported $28.5 billion in capital expenditures in its fiscal first quarter, according to a September 11 earnings report, up from $8.5 billion a year earlier. Oracle has kept its full fiscal 2027 capital expenditure forecast at $90 billion to $95 billion, almost entirely for AI data centers, unchanged from the guidance it first issued in June.
The bill is being financed in part through debt. Co-CEO Clay Magouyrk told the earnings call that Oracle has used "supplier financing arrangements, customer prepayments, and 'bring your own hardware' deals" to spread the cost of building capacity. Oracle reported $55.7 billion in capex for fiscal 2026, including new data centers, in the same earnings release. Shares rose about 7 percent after the report, which also showed 121 percent growth in cloud infrastructure revenue, easing some Wall Street concern that the spending would not translate into business.
That contrast is the central tension in the latest layoff story. A company whose payroll has shrunk by more than 21,000 roles in twelve months is committing to spend roughly the same amount on physical infrastructure in a single fiscal year. Headcount is the cost an executive team can compress quickly; capital projects are the cost it is still adding to.
Where the cuts and the build-out overlap
Business Insider reported last month that the latest round was drawn up to reduce payroll as Oracle took on debt for AI infrastructure, and that the planned cuts reached double-digit percentages on some teams according to an internal document. The Monday email did not name specific teams, but the New York Post reported the cuts affected workers across cloud, marketing, and engineering functions. The mix is consistent with the pattern from earlier this year, when Oracle attributed the 21,000-role reduction to "restructuring, performance issues, strategic shifts and acquisitions."
Oracle is not the only large technology company running a payroll reduction alongside an AI infrastructure build. Across the U.S. technology sector, Layoffs.fyi counted more than 128,800 jobs cut at 303 companies so far in 2026, with AI cited in a growing share of the announcements. The Oracle case is unusual only in scale: it is the only major cloud vendor that has simultaneously committed to spend roughly $90 billion on AI infrastructure while shrinking its workforce by more than 13 percent in a single fiscal year.
An Oracle spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. The exact size of the new round has not been disclosed; the email and external reports do not give a headcount. The terminations appear to be ongoing, and further rounds are not ruled out by the company's published forecast.
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Oracle Corporation Form 10-K, fiscal year ended May 31, 2026 (SEC EDGAR) is the source to consult for the underlying data, statement, ruling or live context.