Hassan Khan
Oracle is preparing another round of job cuts this month as the company takes on tens of billions of dollars in debt to fund its AI data center expansion, according to a Business Insider report cited by Yahoo Finance. The company has asked managers to identify affected employees ahead of the start of its second fiscal quarter on September 1, 2026, with some teams reportedly facing double digit percentage cuts.
The Cost of Oracle’s AI Bet
Oracle’s capital expenditure for fiscal 2026 totaled $55.7 billion, up sharply from $21.2 billion the year before, leaving the company with a cash outflow $23.7 billion larger than what it generated over the same period. To cover the gap, Oracle borrowed $43 billion in debt markets and raised another $5 billion by selling stock during the fiscal year, and it expects to raise roughly $40 billion more through additional borrowing and equity sales in the year ahead. As of early August 2026, Oracle’s total debt stood at $129.5 billion, alongside $260 billion in data center lease commitments.
A Familiar Pattern in the AI Buildout
This would not be Oracle’s first round of cuts tied to its AI infrastructure push. The company’s total headcount already fell by about 21,000 employees during the fiscal year that ended in May 2026. At the same time, Oracle’s cloud infrastructure segment grew 77 percent and overall revenue rose 17 percent in fiscal 2026, driven largely by demand for the computing capacity AI workloads require, showing a company simultaneously growing its top line and shrinking its workforce as it redirects spending toward data centers and chips.
Why It Matters
Oracle’s situation illustrates a broader trend across the tech industry in 2026, where AI infrastructure investment and workforce reductions are increasingly moving together rather than in opposite directions. More than half of this year’s layoff events industry wide have explicitly cited AI, automation, or machine learning as a driving factor. For tech workers and job seekers, that makes it worth watching which roles are being protected as companies redirect budgets toward compute, and which are considered exposed to the same cost pressures pushing Oracle toward its next round of cuts.
Sources: Yahoo Finance / Business Insider, Qz.com
