Oracle’s workforce decreased by 13% in the fiscal year of 2026, losing around 21,000 employees in thi period as the cloud computing firm entered a phase of AI-driven restructuring.

The cloud company’s total workforce now sits at 141,000, compared to 162,000 last year, according to Oracle’s annaul report.

Oracle cut thousands of jobs this year; its filling credited this workforce transformation to a range of variables, from performance issues, shifts in strategy, and changes in management.

The firm, while notable, holds a much smaller role in the global cloud computing market compared to Amazon, Microsoft, and Google, but has gained momentum thanks to deals with OpenAI and Meta for data centres as firms focus on AI infrastructure.

Despite these large deals, Oracle has seen its shares drop around 10% this year, as the firm burns through cash and enters debt to keep up with sprawling demand.

The firm expects its net capital expenditure to reach $70 billion in the current fiscal year, meaning the company will need to raise a further $40 billion in debt and equity to keep up with costs.

Fiscal 2026 saw the firm spend $1.84 billion on severance payments and exit costs associated with its mass layoffs.

Oracle is not alone though, as tech companies continue to let staff go as they re-align to an AI-first world.

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Entering debt and burning through capital is also common in the AI arena, with projections for rising AI debt issuance to reach $570bn by the end of the year.

Time will tell if Oracle comes to regret its restructuring, however, as Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg admitted to his staff that the tech giant “made some mistakes” when it came to mass layoffs in favour of AI.