Oracle Layoffs: Tech giant to slash 30,000 jobs as banks pull out from financing AI data centres

Oracle Layoffs: Tech major Oracle is planning to slash up to 30,000 jobs to fund AI data centres, a new report has said.

According to a report by CIO citing research published this week by investment bank TD Cowen, Oracle will also be selling some of its activities as US banks pull back from investing in the company's AI data centre expansion.

The Oracle layoffs will slash the jobs of around 20,000 to 30,000 employees, the report said.

“Both equity and debt investors have raised questions regarding Oracle’s ability to finance this buildout,” TD Cowen said in its report, according to CIO.

The financing pressures are already taking a toll on Oracle's customer relationships. The company had earlier taken up projects to build data centres for Sam Altman's OpenAI — a commitment the TD Cowen pegs at around $156 billion. However, over the past few weeks, several US banks have pulled out of lending to Oracle for expanding its AI data centres.

Oracle layoffs: What it means for the tech giant

According to the CIO report citing TD Cowen, the Oracle layoffs would mean the company would gain $8 billion to $10 billion in free cash flow.

Oracle has not yet released a statement regarding the development.

The financing challenge comes amid Oracle's ambitions to expand its data centres, with TD Cowen estimating that the company needs $156 billion in capital expenditures for such an expansion.

“Multiple Oracle data-centre leases that were under negotiation with private operators struggled to secure financing, in turn preventing Oracle from securing the data-centre capacity via a lease,” it said.

Any potential Oracle layoffs, if they happen, will be the largest in the company's recent history. In late 2025, the company had slashed around 10,000 jobs as part of a $1.6 billion restructuring plan.

The news comes days after reports that Amazon is laying off 16,000 workers as part of its AI restructure plan.

What other steps has Oracle taken?

Apart from the layoffs, Oracle is also mulling the sale of its healthcare software unit, Cerner, which it acquired for $28.3 billion in 2022.

Faced with the constraints, the company is scrambling to find other solutions to negate the effect on its finances.

As part of its strategy, Oracle has begun requiring clients to help build infrastructure, per the CIO report, citing TD Cowen. This effectively translates to asking clients to shoulder part of the cost, according to the investment bank.

It is also exploring an arrangement called “bring your own chip” (BYOC), where new customers will be required to supply their own hardware, shifting capital requirements off Oracle’s books.

Oracle expects to raise $45 billion to $50 billion in 2026 to build additional capacity for its cloud infrastructure, the software company said on Sunday.