Oracle is making cuts, likely due to increased spending on AI
Oracle has reported laying off more than 300 people. But sources say that number is significantly underestimated and could reach thousands.
Oracle has reported laying off more than 300 people. But sources say that number is significantly underestimated and could reach thousands.
In California, 143 employees at Oracle's Redwood City office received layoff notices effective October 13, 2025. The same notice was given to 161 employees at the company's Seattle, Washington, office.
An employee familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named, told The Register that the figure appears to be an underestimate. He also cited a recent layoff announcement from Microsoft that did not include those who worked remotely.
“It seems like this is happening here too: the official numbers don’t quite match what I’m hearing from my colleagues,” the source said, noting that India is laying off a huge number of workers and some offices may close.
According to the source, this is several thousand employees around the world. And, probably, this is just the beginning.
The job cuts in Seattle were in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), which offers infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and platform-as-a-service (PaaS) products.
The source said the cuts are not related to job relocations, as layoffs are also occurring in India. He believes they are related to capital spending on AI.
"Nobody wants OCI as a cloud platform, at least not many. The only reason for our current success is the AI boom, and we made the right bet early on by buying a lot of AI hardware."
As The Register reported, many OCI services have few or no customers, which is why management is closing them down. As an example, they cited one project where over a hundred developers worked, and the annual revenue covered the salaries of only one or two of them.
“So the reality is that the only thing that’s making OCI and Oracle successful right now is AI. And we’re not doing anything unique in AI. All we’re doing is putting other people’s AI products out there. So our only pro-AI is spending all the money we can on AI infrastructure to sell to TikTok and stuff. So yes, AI is causing these layoffs, but it has nothing to do with AI taking people’s jobs in the traditional sense.”
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