Technology giant cuts 21,000 jobs while investing billions in data centers to capitalize on the artificial intelligence boom.
Oracle Corporation (ORCL) has significantly reduced its workforce over the past year, cutting approximately 21,000 jobs as the company accelerates its transformation into a major provider of artificial intelligence infrastructure.
According to Oracle’s latest annual filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company employed 141,000 full-time workers at the end of fiscal 2026, down from 162,000 a year earlier. The workforce reduction comes as Oracle dramatically increases investment in AI-focused data center capacity to meet growing customer demand.
The company’s capital expenditures surged to $55.7 billion during fiscal 2026, representing a 162% increase from the $21.2 billion spent in fiscal 2025. The aggressive spending reflects Oracle’s commitment to expanding its cloud and AI infrastructure capabilities amid intense competition in the rapidly growing AI market.
While the investment strategy has positioned Oracle to capture future growth opportunities, it has also weighed heavily on cash flow. The company reported free cash flow of negative $23.7 billion, highlighting the substantial costs associated with building next-generation AI facilities.
Despite these challenges, Oracle’s long-term outlook remains strong. The company reported remaining performance obligations (RPOs) of $638 billion, up sharply from $138 billion a year ago. These signed contracts represent future revenue that Oracle has yet to deliver.
A major contributor to this backlog is Oracle’s five-year, $300 billion agreement with OpenAI, one of the largest AI infrastructure deals announced to date. The contract underscores Oracle’s growing role as a critical provider of computing power for the expanding artificial intelligence ecosystem.
