Oracle, a tech giant, makes deep cuts that result in thousands of layoffs.

 

Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison (pictured) is one of the world's richest people (reuters)

Senior Oracle employees posted online that on Tuesday, the tech giant had made "significant" job cuts. Michael Shepherd, a senior manager, was not affected by the job cuts but wrote on LinkedIn that "senior engineers, architects, operations leaders, program managers, and technical specialists" had been let go.

 Some 10,000 people are believed to have lost their jobs so far, one employee told the BBC on Tuesday, citing a drop in the number of staff active on Oracle's internal messaging system Slack.

 Oracle declined to comment when contacted by BBC News.

 It is unknown if these reductions are related to the company's significant investment in AI. Oracle has been using AI tools internally and executives have previously said it enabled fewer employees to do more work.

 Shepherd wrote that the "significant reduction in force" was not based on employee performance.

 "The individuals affected were not let go because of anything they did or didn't do," he added.

His was one of dozens of such posts describing the layoffs.

 Former Oracle employee Kendall Levin said on LinkedIn her role was "eliminated as part of the company's mass reduction in force".

 Several others described receiving early morning emails

One of the largest tech companies in the world, Oracle provides cloud computing infrastructure and software to other businesses. Larry Ellison is Oracle's co-founder, chairman, and chief technology officer. He is one of the richest people in the world. Early this year, rumors within Oracle of a significant layoff began. Leaders in the technology industry, such as Mark Zuckerberg of Meta and Jack Dorsey of Block, have made assertions that are comparable to those made by Oracle executives regarding how businesses can utilize AI tools to accomplish more work with fewer employees.

This year, both executives have also overseen layoffs at their companies. However, for the past few years, these tech industry leaders have been conducting massive layoffs annually. AI has not been blamed for previous rounds of cuts. Other tech companies that have cut jobs this year include Amazon, Pinterest and Epic Games.

Stargate Initiative

The job cuts at Oracle come as it has invested heavily in AI, spending both on its own infrastructure and on partnerships with other companies like OpenAI.

 In order to "meet demand" for even more AI infrastructure, it has raised $50 billion in debt and plans to spend at least $50 billion (£37.8 billion) on infrastructure this year. Along with OpenAI, Softbank, and MGX, an AI investment fund backed by US President Donald Trump, Oracle is also a part of the Stargate initiative. Stargate is a project that will cost $500 million to build data center capacity in the United States. According to its supporters, this is necessary for the anticipated rise in AI processing and power requirements over the next few years.

"Investing in AI infrastructure is capital-intensive, but our operating model is optimized to ensure profitability," Clayton Magouyrk, Oracle's co-chief executive, said earlier this month.

 "To scale a capital-intensive business so quickly is unprecedented."

Source: BBC