Jobs bloodbath at Oracle as 21,000 staff let go amid huge strategy pivot

Oracle has quietly axed 21,000 workers in a massive jobs bloodbath as it pours billions into artificial intelligence, all while admitting the technology is helping eliminate positions.The scale of the cuts was revealed in a regulatory filing Monday, showing Oracle’s workforce shrank from 162,000 full-time employees to 141,000 as of May 31, the end of its fiscal year, Bloomberg reported.“The adoption and deployment of AI technologies across our operations have resulted, and may continue to result, in reductions to our workforce,” the company said.Earlier this year, Oracle started cutting thousands of jobs to save money while building costly AI data centers for clients such as OpenAI.The layoffs have already sparked backlash.A former Oracle employee claimed the company targeted workers “with outstanding stock options” during a recent round of layoffs, while reports say the new chief financial officer received a $26 million stock package.The company’s employee count is now slightly lower than before the $28 billion purchase of Cerner, an electronic health records company, in 2022.That deal brought thousands of new employees to Oracle, many of whom worked near Cerner’s headquarters in the Kansas City area, according to the outlet.In recent years, Oracle has become one of the most high-profile companies to leave California, moving its headquarters from Silicon Valley to Austin in 2020 and then to Nashville in 2024.California's top news, sports and entertainment delivered to your inbox every day.

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Never miss a story The move has only fueled concern about a corporate exodus from the Golden State.Texas now has more Fortune 500 company headquarters than California, a major shift from California’s longtime stronghold.The 2026 Fortune 500 list shows Texas has 57 companies with about $2.8 trillion in revenue, j...