Oracle Layoff: 12,000 Jobs Cut in India Amid Global Restructuring

Oracle has made significant job cuts across markets, with global layoffs expected to touch 30,000 employees. In India alone, around 12,000 employees are believed to have been laid off, marking a drastic reduction of nearly 50 percent of its workforce in the region.

The layoffs span a wide range of roles, including engineers, architects, program managers, and operations leaders. According to senior manager Michael Shepherd, “The layoffs were not performance based,” indicating that the cuts are part of a broader strategic shift rather than individual employee evaluations.

Oracle’s decision to reduce its workforce aligns with a growing trend in the technology sector, where companies are adapting to the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence. Mike Sicilia noted, “AI tools are enabling smaller teams to deliver more output, reducing the need for large engineering groups.” This sentiment is echoed by Oracle’s co-founder Larry Ellison, who remarked, “They can generate computer code, a lot of the code that Oracle is writing, Oracle isn’t writing… our AI models are writing.”

In terms of severance, the package for laid-off employees in India includes 15 days’ salary for each year of service, notice pay, leave encashment, gratuity where applicable, and an additional two-month salary top-up. This move comes as Oracle plans to invest at least $50 billion in infrastructure this year, having raised an additional $50 billion in debt to meet growing demand.

Oracle’s total debt has now crossed $100 billion following $58 billion in new issuances tied to data center investments. The company is also part of the $500 billion Stargate initiative aimed at building data center capacity to support future AI workloads.

Despite these investments, the job cuts reflect a wider pattern across the technology sector amid rising AI adoption. Oracle has committed $2 billion in Germany and $8 billion in Japan toward AI and cloud expansion, suggesting a strategic pivot towards automation and efficiency.

Details remain unconfirmed regarding further layoffs in India, which are expected within weeks, and the exact impact on Indian workers in overseas roles remains unclear. As the tech landscape continues to evolve, Oracle’s restructuring efforts may signal a larger shift in how companies approach workforce management in an increasingly automated world.