Oracle begins new layoffs with 6 a.m. email as AI spending rises

Oracle initiated a new round of layoffs on Monday, September 14, 2026, notifying affected employees via a 6 a.m. email that their roles were eliminated immediately. The cuts are part of a broader restructuring to fund massive artificial intelligence infrastructure spending, following a 13% workforce reduction in the prior fiscal year. Employees reported being locked out of their systems, Slack accounts, and building badges before receiving the termination email. The message, sent from a generic Oracle Leadership address, stated that the decision was part of a broader organizational change and that the notification day was their last working day. It instructed employees to provide a personal email address to receive severance paperwork via DocuSign. The layoffs come just two days after Oracle disclosed in a regulatory filing on September 12 that it was adding approximately $700 million to its expected restructuring costs, bringing the total estimated cost of its fiscal 2026 restructuring plan to roughly $2.8 billion. The company has not disclosed the number of employees affected by the latest cuts or the specific countries involved.