Oracle's 6 am layoff emails hit staff amid new wave of cuts

Oracle employees woke up Monday to a brutal email informing them it would be their last day at the tech giant in its latest round of layoffs. The tech giant sent out termination emails at 6 a.m., citing “broader organizational change” as the reason for the layoffs. “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. As a result, today is your last working day,” the layoff email read, reported Business Insider. Oracle instructed laid-off workers to immediately sign the termination paperwork to secure their severance packages, according to the report.
The job cuts come at a striking moment for Oracle. The company is aggressively expanding its data-centre infrastructure to meet rising demand for artificial intelligence and cloud services, even as it cuts costs and reshapes its workforce. Oracle spent $28.5 billion on capital expenditure in the first quarter of fiscal 2027, more than three times the $8.5 billion it spent in the same period a year earlier. The company has maintained its full-year capital expenditure forecast at $90 billion to $95 billion.
At the same time, Oracle’s AI business is showing strong demand. The company said it signed more than $30 billion in additional AI cloud contracts during the quarter, taking its total remaining performance obligations, or revenue backlog, to $664 billion. But the expansion is expensive. Oracle reported negative free cash flow of $5.4 billion in the quarter, while its spending on data centres continues to climb.
The latest round is not Oracle’s first major workforce reduction this year. Oracle’s global workforce fell by about 21,000 employees, or 13%, during fiscal 2026, which ended on May 31. Its headcount stood at about 141,000 at the end of that period, down from roughly 162,000 a year earlier, according to the company’s annual filing. The company spent about $1.84 billion on severance payments and other exit costs related to restructuring during fiscal 2026, compared with $374 million the previous year.