Oracle expands 2026 layoff plan by $700 million amid AI costs

Oracle expands 2026 layoff plan by $700 million amid AI costs

Mon, September 14, 2026 at 4:23 PM GMT+3 2 min read

• ORCL -3.99%

Oracle disclosed in a regulatory filing that it is expanding its planned job cuts by approximately $700 million, bringing the total estimated cost of its 2026 Restructuring Plan to roughly $2.8 billion as the company presses forward with a costly AI data center buildout.

The additional costs reflect "additional actions that we expect to take," the company said. The plan, approved during fiscal 2026, encompasses severance payments, contract termination fees, and related exit costs, with a portion of the reduction linked to how Oracle is deploying AI across parts of its business.

Through August 31, Oracle had recorded roughly $2.1 billion in charges against the plan. The expansion was disclosed after the close of the company's fiscal first quarter, which ended August 31.

The restructuring push is unfolding as Oracle absorbs a steep rise in capital spending. Cash used for capital expenditures climbed to $28.5 billion in the quarter ended August 31, up from $8.5 billion in the same period a year earlier, the company said, driven by expansion of its data centers. Oracle reported negative free cash flow of $5.4 billion for the quarter.

To fund its buildout, the company said it raised $19.9 billion by selling approximately 141 million shares of common stock through an at-the-market offering program during the quarter. Oracle has said it plans to raise approximately $40 billion through a combination of debt and equity in its current fiscal year.

Despite the financial strain, Oracle posted strong first-quarter results. Total revenues reached $19.3 billion for the three months ended August 31, up from $14.9 billion a year earlier, the company said. Cloud revenues accounted for 60% of total revenues for the quarter, compared with 48% in the same period a year earlier.

As reported last month, Oracle was planning a new round of job cuts ahead of the September 1 start of its fiscal second quarter, with some teams facing cuts in the double digits, according to Business Insider. By the end of May, Oracle's total global workforce had fallen by roughly 21,000 compared with the prior year, leaving the company with around 141,000 employees — a drop of about 13%. The company attributed part of that decline to the adoption and deployment of AI technologies.

The company also disclosed in the filing that Executive Chair Larry Ellison adopted a new share trading plan on June 22 that permits him to sell up to 50 million shares of Oracle stock through October 24, according to Bloomberg.