How Oracle’s huge AI build-out is causing a cash crunch and layoffs
American multinational technology company Oracle, founded by Larry Ellison, is executing the largest layoffs in its history, cutting up to 30,000 jobs or about 19% of its 162,000 global workforce. In India, where it employs around 50,000 people, about 10,000-12,000 roles are being eliminated.At the same time, the company has raised its restructuring budget by $500 million to $2.1 billion in FY26 (June-May), mainly for severance. Oracle attributes part of the reduction to AI coding tools that allow smaller teams to build software faster.
However, the primary driver is financial pressure from its aggressive investment in AI data centres, which has strained liquidity and forced cost-cutting at scale.Oracle started as an asset-light seller of database software and enterprise applications, generating strong cash flows with minimal capital spending. In the early 2010s, it moved into cloud computing with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, gradually building data centres for enterprise workloads.Demand surged after 2022 with generative AI, which requires thousands of GPUs for training and inference. This has since shifted into a capital-intensive AI strategy.
In 2025, this intensified. Oracle signed a $300 billion cloud deal with OpenAI and joined the $500 billion Stargate project with SoftBank Group and others. It began building dedicated AI data centres across multiple US states.The AI bet drove a sharp rerating.
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