Global technology giant Oracle has laid off approximately 13% of its global workforce (around 21,000 jobs) over the past year to focus more intensively on artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
According to the company's latest annual report, Oracle had 162,000 employees at the end of last year, but by the end of May 2026, the number of full-time employees has significantly decreased to 141,000.
The company has openly acknowledged that the replacement of processes with AI technology is the primary reason for the workforce reduction.
Due to this large-scale layoff and business restructuring, Oracle incurred approximately $1.8 billion USD (£1.36 billion) in severance and other restructuring costs in the last financial year. This is a significant increase compared to $374 million spent in the previous year.
While these changes may lead to skilled labor shortages and potential production impacts, Oracle states that this restructuring is necessary to provide the best cloud and AI products to users worldwide.
In fact, Oracle is not alone in this workforce reduction and pivot toward AI. Major technology companies like Amazon, Google, and Meta are also investing billions of dollars to build AI infrastructure and reducing their workforces.
As these major tech companies reduce their workloads—the tech industry's largest expense—and dive into the AI race, research organizations report that the technology sector laid off over 100,000 employees in just the past year.
Ref: bbc
