AUSTIN, Texas, March 6, 2026, 04:30 CST
- Oracle is set to slash thousands of jobs, Bloomberg News reported. The company, when reached, offered no comment.
- Investors are eyeing the impact of surging AI data-center expenditures, wondering if it will trigger fresh fundraising before companies report their quarterly results.
- This week, Oracle unveiled a fresh AI safety tool aimed at construction companies.
Oracle is preparing to lay off thousands of employees, Bloomberg News reported Thursday, as the tech giant wrestles with a cash squeeze linked to its ambitious AI data center buildout. When Reuters reached out, Oracle offered no comment.
The layoffs arrive as Wall Street scrutinizes Oracle’s spending on infrastructure for clients like OpenAI, and its efforts to compete with cloud heavyweights Microsoft and Amazon. Back in February, Oracle projected it would secure between $45 billion and $50 billion in 2026, tapping both equity and debt markets.
Spending is where things get tricky. Back in December, Oracle’s leadership told investors to expect capital expenditures—think data centers and the like—to hit $15 billion over what was originally forecast, blowing past the $35 billion figure the company had put out earlier in its fiscal year. “The ramp in capex and unclear debt needs are causing uncertainty among investors,” said Melissa Otto, head of research at S&P Global’s Visible Alpha. Reuters
Bloomberg reported the layoffs could reach various units at the company, with some job losses possible as early as this month. According to the report, Oracle plans to reduce roles it sees as likely to be displaced by AI.
Oracle informed employees this week that it’s reassessing open roles in its cloud unit, according to Bloomberg, a move that’s putting a pause—or in some cases, a halt—on certain hiring efforts.
Oracle listed roughly 162,000 full-time staff as of May 31, 2025, its annual filing shows, according to Reuters.
Oracle, still cutting jobs, continues to roll out AI features across its sector software. On Thursday, the company launched an AI-driven safety forecasting tool for construction companies, now generally available. Oracle said the product was trained on data covering over 10,000 project-years. “Advisor for Safety marks a significant step forward in safety management,” said Mark Webster, senior vice president and general manager at Oracle Infrastructure Industries. Oracle
The focus isn’t just on chips anymore—power is taking center stage. On Wednesday, Oracle showed up alongside Google, Microsoft, Amazon and several others at the White House, signing onto a pledge to help offset some costs linked to new electricity supplies for data centers. “The real problem is the inability to get generation online fast enough to meet the data center demand,” Jon Gordon, director at Advanced Energy United, said. Reuters
Oracle was changing hands at roughly $154.79, marking a gain of 1.59%, Reuters data showed.
Oracle will post its third-quarter numbers on Tuesday. Investors are watching for updates on data center buildouts, cash flow, and any tweaks to spending plans.
Still, slashing jobs won’t fix the numbers if data center bills keep climbing or top clients hold off on new workloads. Should demand for leased computing power cool more than anticipated, Oracle could be stuck footing the bill for extra capacity longer than planned—while also juggling fewer hands to maintain service quality.
