‘We are sharing some difficult news’: Oracle begins fresh round of job cuts

Oracle has begun another round of layoffs, and for some employees the warning came before the dreaded email.

Workers affected by the latest cuts reported losing access to Oracle systems in the early hours of September 14, followed by Slack disconnections and badge failures. At around 6am, an email from “Oracle Leadership” told them their roles had been eliminated and that the same day was their final working day. The latest cuts are part of a wider restructuring at Oracle, which is simultaneously spending heavily to expand its AI and cloud infrastructure.

What did Oracle’s 6am email say?

The message began: “We are sharing some difficult news regarding your position.” It said Oracle had decided to eliminate the employee’s role because of its “current business needs” and a “broader organisational change”. The email then delivered the key line: “As a result, today is your last working day.” Affected workers were asked to provide a personal email address for information about severance and separation documents. They were also warned that access to their computer, email, voicemail and files would soon be deactivated. Oracle has not publicly disclosed how many employees were affected in this latest round.

Employees say performance did not guarantee job security

Reports from affected workers suggest the cuts reached multiple parts of Oracle, including cloud, engineering, security and support functions. Some employees also said they had strong performance records and years of service before being selected. On Reddit, employees described a similar sequence to Oracle’s earlier round of cuts: internal logins stopped working first, Slack access disappeared later and the termination email followed. One employee described seeing federated login access disappear around 4am, with Slack disconnecting between roughly 5am and 5:30am before the 6am email arrived.

Oracle is spending billions on AI while cutting costs

The layoffs come at a striking moment for Oracle. The company recently increased its expected fiscal 2026 restructuring costs by about $700 million, taking the total to roughly $2.8 billion. Oracle has also committed enormous sums to data centres and AI infrastructure. Oracle reported first-quarter revenue of $19.3 billion, up 30% year-on-year, while cloud infrastructure revenue surged 121% to $7.4 billion. At the same time, free cash flow was negative $5.4 billion as the company poured money into expansion.

That leaves Oracle facing a difficult balancing act: spend heavily enough to capture the AI boom while cutting costs elsewhere. And for employees, the latest round shows just how quickly that strategy can translate into job losses.