Oracle cuts 21,000 jobs in a year, shedding 13% of workforce

Oracle cut 21,000 full-time employees over the past year, Bloomberg reported Sunday (local time), citing a regulatory filing by the US software company.

In the filing, Oracle disclosed that its global full-time headcount stood at 141,000 at the end of fiscal year 2026 — the close of May. That is down 21,000 from 162,000 a year earlier, representing a 13 percent reduction in full-time positions over 12 months.

Oracle said the workforce reductions cost approximately $1.8 billion. "The adoption and application of AI technology across our business has led to workforce reductions and may continue to do so," the company said.

Oracle had begun cutting jobs earlier this year, though the exact scale had not been disclosed.

The layoffs came as Oracle faced fiscal pressure from its push to expand AI data centers for customers including OpenAI. The cuts are seen as a response to both that financial strain and the broader adoption of AI within the company.

Oracle's current full-time headcount is slightly below the level it had before acquiring electronic health records company Cerner in 2022.