Oracle to cut about 13,000 jobs to shift toward AI
Oracle is letting go of about 13,000 employees (roughly 8% of its staff) by September 2026 to shift more resources into AI development.
Even with these layoffs, Oracle's stock price has surged over 12% in just three days, helped by the buzz around OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra launch and excitement ahead of the company's earnings report on September 10.
Oracle tech spending rose to $55.7B
The main reason for the job cuts? Oracle's spending on tech and infrastructure shot up to $55.7 billion this year (from $21.2 billion last year), leading to a big cash gap.
To cover it, Oracle raised $43 billion in debt and $5 billion through stock sales, and expects to raise roughly $40 billion more this year.
Some teams saw significant reductions, with news coming via Slack instead of formal announcements.
Oracle shares $162.89, analysts expect $19.1B
Despite all this change, investors are feeling good: Oracle shares closed at $162.89 on September 8, up more than 14% over the past two weeks.
Analysts expect revenue to hit $19.1 billion (up 28%), while everyone's keeping an eye on Oracle's massive $638 billion backlog for signs of what comes next.