Oracle — up to 30,000 jobs cut (~18% of workforce)

Oracle — up to 30,000 jobs cut (~18% of workforce)
Date: Began March 31, 2026 | Sources: TD Cowen estimate (via multiple outlets), Bloomberg, Oracle 10-Q filing

Oracle carried out one of the largest tech layoffs in history starting March 31, 2026, when employees across the US, India, Canada, and Mexico received termination emails at 6 a.m. with no prior HR warning and immediate system lockout. Oracle hasn’t officially confirmed a headcount, but analyst firm TD Cowen and WARN filings put the number between 20,000 and 30,000, roughly 18% of staff; reports say around 12,000 of those cuts landed in India alone. The company disclosed a $2.1 billion restructuring charge in its March 10-Q filing. The driver is cash: Oracle has taken on roughly $58 billion in new debt within two months to fund a massive AI data-center buildout, with remaining performance obligations hitting $553 billion (up 325% year-over-year), driven heavily by a roughly $300 billion, five-year compute deal with OpenAI. Its stock has lost more than half its value since a September 2025 peak. Severance drew criticism after roughly 90 laid-off employees petitioned Oracle to match terms offered by Meta, Microsoft, and Cloudflare — Oracle reportedly held firm. The cuts also drew scrutiny for coinciding with continued H-1B visa petitions for foreign workers.