Oracle Layoffs 12000 People in India; Cutting Upto 30000 Jobs Globally in Pivot to Fund AI Push

San Francisco: Oracle, one of the world's largest enterprise technology companies, executed what analysts are describing as the most sweeping workforce reduction in its 48-year history on Tuesday, dismissing between 20,000 and 30,000 employees worldwide to fund an aggressive and debt-heavy push into artificial intelligence infrastructure. The manner of the terminations — a brief, impersonal email delivered at 6 am with no prior notice — drew as much scrutiny as the scale of the cuts themselves.

Employees across the United States, India, Canada, Mexico, and other countries received termination emails from "Oracle Leadership" at approximately 6 am local time, with no prior warning from HR or their direct managers. The emails informed employees that their roles had been eliminated as part of a broader organisational change, and that the day of the email was their final working day. Access to company systems was cut immediately.

Several employees described receiving the early morning emails informing them they were no longer employed. Several employees informed that senior engineers, architects, operations leaders, program managers, and technical specialists were among those laid off, and that the individuals affected were not let go because of anything they did or failed to do, noting that the layoffs were not performance-based.

Oracle has not confirmed the total number of people affected, but investment bank TD Cowen has estimated the cuts will hit between 20,000 and 30,000 employees, roughly 18% of Oracle's global workforce of approximately 162,000 people.

India bore a disproportionate share of the impact. With roughly 30,000 total employees in the country before the cuts, the approximately 12,000 layoffs represent a 40% contraction of Oracle's India workforce in a single sweep. The roles affected span engineers, architects, database administrators, ERP implementation specialists, cloud infrastructure professionals, and operations staff.

According to reports, the layoffs are not the product of a company in financial distress. Oracle posted a 95% jump in net income last quarter, reaching $6.13 billion, and its remaining performance obligations — a measure of contracted future revenue — stood at $523 billion, up 433% year over year. Rather, they reflect a calculated trade-off between headcount and hardware.

Oracle has committed to an aggressive AI data centre buildout carrying a capital expenditure commitment of roughly $50 billion for fiscal 2026 alone. According to analysis from TD Cowen, the job cuts are expected to free up between $8 billion and $10 billion in cash flow — money the company urgently needs to fund that buildout. The layoffs are expected to fund data centres, GPU clusters, and cloud infrastructure for clients.