It sounded, at first, like a cruel, early April Fool’s joke. But in reality, tech giant Oracle reportedly emailed workers at 6 a.m. on March 31 to hand out digital pink slips (1).
“We are sharing some difficult news about your position,” the email sent to employees, and reviewed by Business insidersaid “After careful consideration of Oracle’s current business needs, we have decided to eliminate your role as part of a broader organizational change. As a result, today is your last day working” (2).
It is unclear how many employees lost their jobs, with reports ranging from 10,000 (3) to 30,000 (4). The latter would represent about 19% of the company’s 162,000 workers (5). In terms of money Oracle was reached for clarification on the number of job cuts and the reasons behind them, but was told “Oracle declines comment”.
Nina Lewis, who works as a security alert manager, posted on LinkedIn after receiving the notification, “After 34 (33 great) years at Oracle, I join 30,000 or so workers today. She added that “it seems that the layoffs follow an algorithm of high-level individual contributors and mid-level managers – especially those with outstanding stock options” (6).
Oracle—which was co-founded by billionaire Larry Ellison, who also serves as its executive chairman—posted a 95% increase in net income last quarter, to the tune of more than $6 billion (7). The company’s stock, however, closed at $147.11 on the day of the layoff (8) — down nearly 55% from its all-time high of $326.90 last September.
Oracle is, for example Bloomberg Trying to manage a “cash crunch from massive AI data center expansion efforts” in its pivot to compete with Amazon and power AI infrastructure for companies like OpenAI—with which it signed a $300 billion deal last year (10). It has also been reported that Oracle’s borrowing costs have doubled (4) because banks have backed away from financing data center expansions, while a TD Cowen analysis suggests cutting 20,000 to 30,000 jobs could save the company up to $10 billion (11).
Workers in many industries have long feared that AI will come for their jobs. In fact, a March Quinnipiac University survey showed that 30% of all employed Americans are concerned that AI will make their jobs obsolete (12).
And their fears are not unfounded. A 2025 MIT study found that 11.7% of the labor market – including “finance, healthcare, and professional services” – could be replaced by AI (13).
In Big Tech, however, those fears are quickly being realized and often linked to AI expansion. Tracker websites like Layoffs.fyi and Trueup put between 41,000 and 85,000 big tech job cuts so far this year — the latter amounting to about 1,000 layoffs a day.
Oracle’s cuts come after CEO Mike Sicilia praised the AI coding tool for “enabling small engineering teams to deliver more complete solutions” (14).
Amazon, meanwhile, laid off 16,000 corporate workers in January – after cutting 14,000 jobs last October (15) – after CEO Andy Jassy admitted in a memo to employees that AI “will reduce our total corporate workforce as we gain efficiency” (16).
In addition, Dell cut 11,000 jobs by the end of January, which some attributed to an eventual AI modernization (17), while Block Inc. linked its 4,000 February cuts to AI (18). Meta’s AI focus is said to be behind the decision to lay off around 700 employees in March (19), just as Atlassian laid off 1,600 employees the same month, ahead of further AI investments (20).
And last year, Microsoft laid off at least 15,000 employees amid speculation of a shift toward more AI automation and tools (21).
Read more: 5 Essential Money Moves to Make After You’ve Saved $50,000
As Oracle employees have learned, layoffs can come quickly and without warning. If you find yourself locked out unexpectedly, here are four things to do before you walk out the door for good.
1. Get Organized: Attorney Eric Fudali told CNBC that you should make copies of your layoff notice and any other termination communications before you lose access to your work account (22). He also advises not to sign any severance agreement until you read it carefully and consult the company’s HR policy and any state or federal laws. If you believe you are the victim of wrongful termination, consider contacting an employment attorney.
2. Keep it professional: Just because you got fired doesn’t mean it’s time to start burning bridges. For your own career and in case there is a problem related to your termination and you need to contact the company to work it out, it is better to maintain work contacts.
3. Get what you owe: In addition to severance, make sure you know what you owe in terms of final paychecks and pending benefit payments. And if you have a 401(k), you’ll have to decide whether you want to leave it with your old employer or simply roll over to an IRA.
4. Ask for references: Before you’re out the door, ask any relevant colleagues or supervisors for references that you can use in your next job search. Even if you lose that job, you never know when a glowing review from a former colleague might help you land another job.
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New York Post (1); Business Insider (2); BBC (3); Forbes (4); Oracle (5); LinkedIn (6); CIO (7); Macrotrends (8); Bloomberg (9); Wall Street Journal (10); CIO (11); Quinnipiac University Poll (12); MIT (13); Investing.com (14); CNBC (15); Business Insider (16); Business Insider (17); Wall Street Journal (18); New York Times (19); The Guardian (20); Fate (21); CNBC (22)
This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
