Oracle Cuts Cloud Jobs Amid AI Investment Push, Seattle Hit Hard

Oracle cuts cloud jobs, Seattle hit hard, as AI spending up

Oracle issued layoff notices for more than 300 people in Washington State and California this week, according to state Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification filings in those states. In California, 143 employees at Oracle's Redwood City office received layoff notices, effective October 13, 2025; in Washington, 161 employees at the company's Seattle office received notices, also effective in October. Oracle did not respond to a request for comment. A staffer familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified, told The Register that the figure seems low, citing allegations that Microsoft's recent layoff notices failed to count those let go who worked remotely. "It feels like that happened here too, the reported numbers don't quite match up with what my network is saying," our source said, adding that a massive number of employees in India are being let go and that several offices may be closed. "My estimate would be low thousands worldwide," our source said. "Supposedly this is just the start, too." Oracle reportedly has let go about 10 percent of its staff in India. The dismissals follow Tata Consultancy Services' recent decision to fire more than 10,000 workers, a decision attributed by The Economic Times to "macro uncertainties and AI disruptions." The job cuts in Seattle focused on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, which offers infrastructure-as-a-service and platform-as-a-service products. We're told that morale in the OCI group was already low after under-the-radar layoffs in March. Our source doesn't believe the cuts are intended as cover for moving jobs offshore - a scenario the layoffs in India would seem to preclude. Rather, we're told, Oracle is winding down its presence in Seattle, closing offices as well as cutting staff. "Honestly it is just about AI capex," our source said, in reference to the vast capital expenditures being made by cloud providers to build data centers for AI workloads. "Nobody wants OCI as a cloud platform, at least not many. The only reason we're successful now is because of the rise of AI and we made a good bet early on to get a bunch of AI hardware." We're told that many OCI services have few if any customers, which is why executives are shutting them down. One instance cited is said to have staff of more than a hundred developers while generating only enough annual revenue to pay the salaries of one or two of them. Oracle Chairman and CTO Larry Ellison offered an alternative take for the company's Q4 results [PDF] in June. "Overall Oracle Cloud Infrastructure consumption revenue grew 62 percent in Q4," he said in a statement. "We expect OCI consumption revenue to grow even faster in FY26. OCI revenue growth rates are skyrocketing - so is demand." Our source disagrees. "So the reality is that the only thing making OCI and Oracle successful right now is AI," we're told. "And we're not doing anything unique in AI. All we're doing is hosting other people's AI products. So our only 'in' on AI is spending all the money we can on AI infrastructure to sell to TikTok and others. So yes, AI is causing this layoff but it has nothing to do with AI taking people's jobs in the traditional sense." ®

Oracle lays off 161 employees in Seattle as part of broader reported cuts impacting cloud business

Oracle is laying off 161 workers in Seattle, according to a filing with the Washington state Employment Security Department. The cloud and database giant has more than 400 employees in the Seattle region, according to LinkedIn. We reached out to the company for comment and we'll update this story if we hear back. The layoffs appear to be part of broader cuts across the tech giant's operations. DatacenterDynamics reported Tuesday that the layoffs impacted Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) teams, as well as data center operations technicians, technical project managers for the AI/ML team, and others. Teams in the U.S., Canada, and India were impacted, according to the publication. The company has 235 open roles in Seattle on its jobs page. Oracle has grown its presence in the Seattle region over the past decade, tapping into the area's robust engineering talent pool as it battled Amazon and Microsoft in the cloud. In more recent years Oracle has established partnerships with both Seattle-area companies. Oracle, Microsoft, and other cloud behemoths are investing heavily to expand capacity for training and running AI models. Rising capital expenditures have created pressure to reduce operating costs through workforce reductions. Microsoft recently laid off more than 15,000 people globally. Oracle is part of the $500 billion joint venture AI infrastructure project "Stargate" with OpenAI and SoftBank. It also inked a recent deal with Temu and helps power TikTok's servers. Oracle announced last year that it was relocating its headquarters from Austin to Nashville. The company's stock is up nearly 50% this year.

Oracle cuts hundreds of jobs as AI push continues

Company layoffs have so far been low compared with other hyperscalers Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) filings have confirmed Oracle has laid off over 300 workers in Washington and California. The redundancies consist of 143 workers in Redwood City, California and a further 161 in Seattle, Washington, however further layoffs could also be taking place that are not covered by WARN filings. A worker familiar with the matter told The Register the figures sound low, suggesting remote workers might not be accounted for - a way of obscuring the scale of layoffs that Microsoft has also been accused of. "It feels like that happened here too, the reported numbers don't quite match up with what my network is saying," the worker said. "My estimate would be low thousands worldwide... Supposedly this is just the start, too," they added. Compared with other giants in this space, Oracle's reaction to economic uncertainties has been pretty reserved. Around 200 workers left in 2022, with some more leaving in separate sittings since then. Compared with the tens of thousands who have lost their jobs at Amazon, Google and Microsoft, Oracle workers have therefore been pretty safe. Looking ahead, The Register's source suggests thousands could lose their jobs worldwide with offices being closed and large cuts in India (around 10% of its local workforce). Artificial intelligence has been blamed for ongoing tech layoffs, but instead of AI taking human jobs, companies are having to allocate more capital towards AI data center expansions, effectively cutting their staffing budgets. In June, Oracle confirmed a revenue increase for fiscal 2025 of 8%. "Cloud Infrastructure growth rate is expected to increase from 50% in FY25 to over 70% in FY26," CEO Safra Catz noted. TechRadar Pro has asked Oracle to share further context about its recent layoffs. Any update will be posted here.

Oracle layoffs: Oracle cuts cloud division jobs amid surge in AI spending - The Economic Times

Layoffs in Oracle: Oracle is cutting jobs in its closely watched cloud unit, the latest company taking steps to control costs amid heavy spending on AI infrastructure. Impacted workers were told this week that their roles were eliminated, according to people familiar with the matter. Some of the reductions were related to performance issues, and the unit continues to hire, two of the people said. More than 150 jobs were cut in the Seattle area, which is traditionally the unit's hub, according to two people familiar with the figures. Oracle said last year it was moving its headquarters to Nashville, and the company currently has more jobs listed in Tennessee than any other state. An Oracle spokesperson didn't respond to multiple requests for comment. The full scope of reductions couldn't be determined. The overall cuts were first reported by Datacenter Dynamics, an industry news publication. Many tech giants have sought to deal with the surging costs of AI by reducing expenses in other parts of the business. Microsoft Corp. has cut some 15,000 roles this year. Amazon.com Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc. have also axed jobs. Oracle's stock is near an all-time high on momentum in its cloud unit. Last month it inked an unprecedented deal with OpenAI for about 4.5 gigawatts of data centre power in the US. Still, the company is on the hook for tens of billions of dollars to build out increasingly large server farms to meet demand. Its free cash flow was negative in the fiscal year that ended in May. In a June filing, Oracle said that it periodically makes changes to its workforce due to strategy changes, reorganizations or performance issues. "These types of restructurings have resulted, and may in the future result, in increased restructuring costs and temporarily reduced productivity while employees adjust to the restructuring."

Oracle Slashes Jobs to Fund $500B AI Investment

Oracle has joined TCS and other tech behemoths in one trend. This company has laid off more than 150 employees in its high-profile cloud division, primarily in Seattle. According to reports, these job cutdowns are part of a broader strategy to mitigate rising costs from aggressive investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure. While claim some job cuts are the result of performance-related issues, the cloud unit continues to hire selectively, which indicates a measured strategic reshuffle rather than a broad cutback. Interestingly, this move coincides with Oracle's $500 billion 'Stargate' AI infrastructure initiative and its record-breaking deal of supplying 4.5 gigawatts of data center power to OpenAI.