Oracle May Cut 30,000 Jobs as AI Expansion Hits Funding Wall

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Oracle Corporation is reportedly planning to slash up to 30,000 jobs in 2026. This would potentially be the biggest layoffs in the company’s history. 

Why Oracle might Cut 30,000 Jobs?

The dramatic move comes as major US banks pull back from financing Oracle’s ambitious plans for AI data center expansion.

According to a research report by investment bank TD Cowen, Oracle needs a staggering $156 billion in capital to complete its data center buildout. To put that in perspective, that’s more than the GDP of many countries. 

The job cuts would free up between $8 billion and $10 billion in cash flow, which Oracle desperately needs to fund these projects.

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Oracle currently employs approximately 162,000 people worldwide. Cutting 30,000 jobs would mean eliminating nearly 18% of its entire workforce. That’s almost 1 in every 5 employees.

Employees working closely with data centres and teams outside Oracle’s core business are expected to face the biggest risk. 

This wouldn’t be Oracle’s first round of layoffs. The company already cut around thousands of jobs in 2025.

The Funding Problem

Several US banks have stopped lending money to Oracle for its AI infrastructure projects over recent weeks. This has created a domino effect: without bank financing, private data center operators can’t build the facilities Oracle needs, which means Oracle can’t deliver the services it promised to customers.

Making matters worse, Oracle’s borrowing costs have roughly doubled since September. The interest rates banks are now charging Oracle are similar to what they charge companies with poor credit ratings.

Multiple Oracle data center lease agreements that were being negotiated with private operators have struggled to secure financing, preventing Oracle from getting the capacity it needed.

Part of Oracle’s financial pressure also stems from its massive commitment to OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. Oracle had promised to build extensive data center capacity specifically for OpenAI’s AI models. 

However, due to Oracle’s financing troubles, OpenAI has shifted its near-term capacity needs to Microsoft and Amazon instead.

Oracle is also exploring selling parts of its business to strengthen its financial position, including its healthcare software unit Cerner, which it acquired in 2022 for a reported $28.3 billion.

Bottom Line

This just looks like another case of a big tech company going all-in on the AI hype without fully thinking it through. Now, cutting jobs is not a strategy. It raises real questions about leadership decisions and whether this AI push was rushed more for headlines than long-term sustainability.

Oracle has not yet officially confirmed the layoffs. But for the 30,000 employees to be affected, the coming weeks will be filled with uncertainty.

The tech industry will be watching closely to see how Oracle navigates this crisis. Their struggles highlight a broader challenge facing the tech industry: the enormous costs of building AI infrastructure. 

While AI promises to revolutionize technology, the physical infrastructure required also means a lot of funding to back it up.

Oracle is not alone in restructuring. Amazon recently laid off 16,000 workers as part of its AI restructuring plan, showing that even tech giants with deep pockets are feeling the pressure.