Oracle Slashes Workforce To Help Pay For AI Data Centers, Analysts Estimate 30,000 Cuts

Oracle Corp (NYSE:ORCL) dreams of AI, but even with more than $6 billion in profits, it’s still short on cash. The solution? Fire thousands of employees. Roughly 18% of the company’s global workforce reportedly received a 6 a.m. termination email on Tuesday from “Oracle Leadership.” Access to company systems was cut immediately with no prior warning, no manager call and no HR meeting. TD Cowen estimates the cuts could reach 20,000 to 30,000 workers, making it the single largest tech layoff of 2026. Benzinga reached out to Oracle to confirm the estimated number of layoffs, but has not heard back. Meanwhile, Polymarket's AI Bubble Burst contract has jumped to 22% from 17% in late February, as speculation grows around the financial risks of AI investments. After posting $6.13 billion in net income, Oracle is still cutting thousands of jobs to free up funds—highlighting the growing tension between soaring profits and the exorbitant costs of AI infrastructure. Record Profits, Record Layoffs TD Cowen projects the cuts will free up $8 billion to $10 billion in cash flow to fund what the bank estimates is a $156 billion AI data center build out. Oracle posted a 95% jump in net income last quarter to $6.13 billion. The enterprise software company’s remaining performance obligations hit $553 billion last quarter. That’s up 325% year-over-year, driven largely by a deal with OpenAI worth over $300 billion. The backlog is enormous. Whether it is converting that to revenue is the question Oracle has not answered. The Austin, Texas-based company has taken on $58 billion in new debt within two months and multiple U.S. banks have reportedly pulled back from financing its data center projects. The stock is down more than 25% year-to-date. It’s Not Just Oracle, Prediction Markets Price Fallout Oracle, founded by billionaire Larry Ellison, is not alone. Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) cut 16,000 corporate jobs in January. Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) is reportedly planning up to 15,000 cuts. Block (NYSE:XYZ) slashed 40% of its workforce. The sector has eliminated over 59,000 jobs in Q1 alone, outpacing 2025’s full-year pace. A separate Polymarket contract gives a 55% chance that U.S. unemployment hits 5% this year, up from the current 4.4%. TD Cowen and other analysts have warned that Oracle’s playbook of swapping headcount for compute may become a template for enterprise tech. Steve Eisman, the Big Short investor, said earlier this month that Oracle’s credit default swaps had hit their highest spread since 2008, but dismissed bankruptcy risk. The CDS market is “extremely illiquid,” he said. The layoff market is not. Image: Shutterstock