American software giant Oracle executed its second major wave of layoffs in 2026, affecting more than 2,500 employees worldwide as part of a wide-ranging operational restructuring aimed at pumping tens of billions of dollars into AI data center infrastructure while cutting administrative and software expenses.
Article Index:
- The second wave of layoffs and leaked document details
- Impact on software developers and the cloud infrastructure sector
- Effect of layoffs on India offices and international work locations
- Capital spending approaching $95 billion on intelligence centers
- Severance packages and financial compensation paths for laid-off workers
- Congressional hearings and fears of engineers being replaced by AI
- Frequently asked questions
The second wave of layoffs and leaked document details
Internal leaked documents obtained by Business Insider on Wednesday revealed that Oracle carried out its second major wave of employee layoffs this year, resulting in the termination of more than 2,500 employees across its branches and operational offices worldwide.
These painful workforce reductions come less than six months after thousands of jobs were eliminated across the United States, as part of a comprehensive strategy by upper management in Austin to strictly control operating costs and direct cash flows toward funding the rapid expansion of cloud computing servers and generative AI accelerators.
Impact on software developers and the cloud infrastructure sector
Leaked workforce documents showed that 546 employees in Oracle’s North American cloud infrastructure division were included in the recent layoff decisions, representing about 7.6 percent of the total workforce in this vital department of 7,185 employees.
Notably, software development and engineering jobs accounted for the largest share of eliminated positions at roughly 17 percent, with the “software developer 3” rank topping the list of laid-off workers with 57 positions. The decisions also affected program managers, senior infrastructure engineers, and 41 technical support staff in data centers, including a vice president and two senior executives.
Effect of layoffs on India offices and international work locations
Professional networking platform surveys and Indian press reports confirmed that Oracle’s offices in India bore the brunt of the new wave’s burdens, with The Hindu Business Line estimating that the September termination decisions affected about 3,000 Indian employees out of more than 6,000 affected workers globally.
Engineers and developers expressed profound discontent across professional social platforms, noting that major corporations rushed to hire Indian talent to cut costs in past years, only to make them the primary victims during any financial correction as it represents the least costly and legally quietest path compared to Western markets.
Capital spending approaching $95 billion on intelligence centers
These strict reductions coincide with Oracle engaging in the largest and most expensive capital expansion program in its corporate history. The company expects to spend between $90 billion and $95 billion this year alone to build ultra-capacity data centers and secure computing power to meet unprecedented demand for artificial intelligence processors.
The company has resorted to extensive bank borrowing and issuing financial bonds to cover this massive spending, imposing growing pressures on it to cut salaries and direct operational expense items to ensure the preservation of its high credit rating in global financial markets.
Severance packages and financial compensation paths for laid-off workers
Human resources sources explained that eligible employees included in the layoff decisions will receive a financial compensation package starting with a base salary allowance of four weeks for the first completed year of service, plus one additional work week for each subsequent year.
The company capped the maximum compensation package at no more than 26 weeks of base salary, alongside temporary health insurance coverage and counseling support to help dismissed employees find alternative job opportunities in a technology market witnessing shrinkage and extensive hiring scrutiny.
Congressional hearings and fears of engineers being replaced by AI
These successive layoffs have sparked mounting concern among decision-makers and government officials in the United States. The Texas Senate Committee on Economic Development held an extended hearing on Tuesday to discuss ways to retrain the workforce to face artificial intelligence disruptions, with lawmakers citing Oracle’s case as a troubling model for cutting engineering jobs.
Labor and employment experts participating in the session emphasized that intelligent programming tools have begun reshaping traditional engineering jobs, necessitating the integration of AI literacy skills into all educational and training programs to avoid structural unemployment crises for specialized engineers.
Frequently asked questions
Question: How many employees were affected by Oracle’s recent layoff wave?
Answer: The reductions included more than 2,500 employees globally, with unofficial estimates indicating that 3,000 employees in India were affected.
Question: What is the budget size allocated by Oracle for AI data centers?
Answer: The company expects to spend between $90 billion and $95 billion this year on building computing capacities.
Question: What jobs made up the largest share of layoffs within Oracle?
Answer: Software development and engineering jobs made up about 17 percent of the eliminated positions, particularly level three developers.
