Oracle’s costly expansion into AI and cloud infrastructure is unfolding alongside another round of job cuts.
The September action is the second major company-wide layoff wave reported in six months, following cuts that began in late March. This time, the way employees discovered they were affected has drawn almost as much attention as the layoffs themselves.
Workers began losing access to Oracle’s internal systems before sunrise on September 14. Then, formal emails arrived later, telling affected employees that their roles had been removed and that the same day would be their last at the company.
Reports place the number of jobs cut at around 2,500, although Oracle has not confirmed the figure or publicly disclosed the full scale of the layoffs.
Employees Were Locked Out Before They Were Notified
The process began at about 4 AM Eastern Time when federated logins stopped working. Slack sessions then disconnected in waves between 5 AM and 5:30 AM, while some employees also found that their office badges no longer worked, according to The Times of India.
According to the Business Insider, at around 6 AM local time, emails from “Oracle Leadership” informed workers that their positions had been eliminated following a “broader organizational change,” with the message adding that “today is your last working day.”
This time sequence meant some workers learned they had lost their jobs through failed logins before receiving any explanation.
Meanwhile, employee accounts shared on Reddit and LinkedIn described people being unable to access Slack, laptops, and other work systems ahead of the official message.
The 2,500 Figure Remains Unconfirmed
According to NewsGram, roughly 2,500 employees were affected, citing a Hindustan Times report. However, Oracle has not verified that estimate.
Other reports noted that Oracle’s Slack membership fell by several thousand during the morning, but that change cannot independently confirm the number of layoffs.
The cuts affected several teams, with employee posts naming Oracle Cloud Infrastructure security, enterprise engineering, Fusion, NetSuite sales, customer support, Oracle Health, and data centre operations.
Oracle is Cutting Staff While Spending Heavily on AI
Oracle is spending far more on infrastructure for AI and cloud services, and its capital expenditure reached $28.5 billion in the first quarter of its 2027 financial year, up from $8.5 billion a year earlier. The company has also maintained a full-year spending forecast of between $90 billion and $95 billion, while restructuring costs are expected to reach about $2.8 billion.
In addition, the new layoffs follow a sharp reduction already documented in Oracle’s workforce. As it was reported earlier in the year, the company’s headcount fell by 21,000 during the financial year ended May 31, dropping from about 162,000 to 141,000.
Affected U.S. employees were offered four weeks of base salary and one additional week for each year of service, according to documents reviewed by Business Insider.
Still, the early morning lockout showed how abruptly Oracle is carrying out its latest restructuring.
