Oracle Cuts 30,000 Jobs Globally in Sudden AI Pivot Including 12,000 Positions at Its Largest Hub in India

Oracle fired up to 30,000 employees globally on 31 March, including an estimated 12,000 in India, in what analysts believe is the largest workforce reduction in the company's nearly 50-year history.

Workers in the US, India, Canada, Mexico, and Uruguay received termination emails from 'Oracle Leadership' as early as 6 a.m. with no prior warning from human resources or their direct managers.

The email informed staff their roles had been eliminated 'as part of a broader organizational change' and that the same day would be their last. Access to company systems was cut almost immediately.

India, Oracle's largest global workforce hub with an estimated 30,000 employees, is bearing nearly 40% of the total cuts. Affected employees said another round of layoffs is expected within a month.

Billions for Data Centres, Pink Slips for Staff

Investment bank TD Cowen estimates the cuts will hit between 20,000 and 30,000 employees, roughly 18% of Oracle's 162,000-person workforce. The layoffs are expected to free up $8 billion (£6 billion) to $10 billion (£7.5 billion) in annual cash flow to fund AI infrastructure.

Oracle raised up to $50 billion (£38 billion) in debt and equity financing earlier this year to expand data centre capacity. The company has committed to spending at least $50 billion on capital expenditure in 2026. It is also part of the $500 billion (£378 billion) Stargate initiative alongside OpenAI, SoftBank, and MGX.

The company disclosed a $2.1 billion (£1.6 billion) restructuring plan in its March 2026 Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Oracle's net income jumped 95% last quarter to $6.13 billion (£4.6 billion), yet leadership determined that payroll was expendable in the race to build AI.

Overseas Workers Hit First and Hardest

Indian workers were offered a severance package that includes 15 days' salary for each completed year of service, notice pay, leave encashment, and a two-month salary top-up. The top-up is reportedly contingent on agreeing to voluntarily resign.

Michael Shepherd, a senior manager at Oracle who was not affected, wrote on LinkedIn that 'senior engineers, architects, operations leaders, programme managers, and technical specialists' were among those let go. 'The individuals affected were not let go because of anything they did or didn't do,' he said.

Teams across Oracle's Revenue and Health Sciences division, SaaS and Virtual Operations Services, Oracle Health, and NetSuite's India Development Centre saw workforce reductions of at least 30%, according to employee accounts on Reddit and Blind.

AI as a Convenient Excuse

Oracle's own earnings release signalled the cuts weeks earlier. The company stated that 'AI Code Generation technology is enabling us to build more software in less time with fewer people.'

But not everyone is buying the AI narrative. Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen told the 20VC podcast that artificial intelligence is a 'silver bullet excuse' for layoffs that stem from pandemic-era over-hiring. 'Essentially, every large company is overstaffed,' he said. 'I think a lot of them are overstaffed by 75%, and now they all have the silver bullet excuse. Ah, it's AI.'

Oracle has not officially commented on the global layoff figures.

What Comes Next

More than 52,000 US tech employees have been laid off in the first three months of 2026, a 40% jump from the same period last year, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

If the current pace holds, total tech job losses could reach 265,000 by December, surpassing 2025's full-year total of nearly 246,000.

For tech workers watching from inside companies still weighing cuts, the message is hard to miss. AI investment is being funded by cutting human payroll, and the list grows by the week.