Oracle lays off 21,000 workers as it ramps up debt-fueled AI investments

Oracle has laid off 21,000 employees over the past year, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing on Monday. In its annual regulatory filing for the fiscal year ending May 31, 2026, Oracle reported 141,000 full-time employees, down from 162,000 in the previous year—a 12.9% reduction. The layoffs follow reports of mass job cuts in March.

The filing states that the adoption and deployment of AI technologies contributed to the workforce reductions. However, the job cuts are also tied to large capital expenditures to build Oracle's data center infrastructure to support AI workloads. "The majority of the initiatives undertaken by the 2026 Restructuring Plan were effected to implement our continued emphasis in developing, marketing, selling, and delivering our cloud-based offerings," the filing reads.

In February, Oracle announced plans to raise $45 billion to $50 billion in 2026 to expand its Oracle Cloud Infrastructure for customers including OpenAI, xAI, AMD, Nvidia, and Meta. About half of that funding will come through debt, with the remainder from equity. This announcement raised investor concerns about Oracle's growing debt to fuel its AI efforts. Overall, Oracle has over $120 billion in debt, per its fiscal year 2026 earnings report.

In February, bondholders sued Oracle, claiming they lost money because Oracle hid the need to raise its debt to build AI infrastructure, as reported by Reuters.