Oracle layoffs are all over the news right now, and what happened on Tuesday, March 31 is hard to ignore. The company sent termination notices to thousands of employees across the US, India, Canada, Mexico, and other regions — most of them landing before 6 a.m. local time — with no prior heads-up from HR or direct managers.
TD Cowen estimates the Oracle layoffs 2026 round could hit between 20,000 and 30,000 workers, roughly 18% of the 162,000-strong global workforce. Shares shot up sharply on the news, with the Oracle stock jump reaching nearly 6% by close — ORCL finished at $147.11 on April 1. Larry Ellison’s company has not officially confirmed a total headcount figure, and an Oracle spokesperson declined to comment.
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What the Email Actually Said
Business Insider reviewed copies of the Oracle layoffs email, which Oracle Leadership sent out early that Tuesday morning. No call from HR, no message from a manager — just a notification making it clear the day it arrived was also the last working day.
Oracle Leadership stated:
“After careful consideration of Oracle’s current business needs, we have made the decision to eliminate your role as part of a broader organizational change. As a result, today is your last working day. We are grateful for your dedication, hard work, and the impact you have made during your time with us.”
Oracle also cut off computer access, email, voicemail, and files shortly after the Oracle layoffs email went out. The notification directed employees to submit a personal email address right away to get severance documents through DocuSign, and also reminded them not to download, copy, or keep any Oracle confidential information.
Who Was Let Go
Senior manager Michael Shepherd, who kept his own job during the Oracle layoffs, took to LinkedIn on Tuesday and described what the cuts looked like from the inside — making it clear that none of this had anything to do with performance.
Shepherd wrote on LinkedIn:
“Senior engineers, architects, operations leaders, program managers, and technical specialists had been let go. The individuals affected were not let go because of anything they did or didn’t do.”
Former Oracle employee Kendall Levin also posted on LinkedIn that her role got “eliminated as part of the company’s mass reduction in force,” adding that she remains “a genuine believer” in where the company is headed. Threads on LinkedIn and forums like Reddit’s r/employeesOfOracle filled up quickly with similar posts. Oracle Health, Revenue and Health Sciences, SaaS and Virtual Operations Services, Cloud, Customer Success, and NetSuite all took hits — some teams reportedly losing at least 30% of their headcount.
The AI Argument Behind the Oracle Stock Jump
Wall Street read the Oracle stock jump of nearly 6% exactly the way Larry Ellison likely hoped: as confirmation that the company knows what it’s doing with this round of cuts. Oracle already committed to at least $50 billion in infrastructure spending for 2026 and raised another $50 billion in debt to meet AI capacity demand. The company also disclosed a $2.1 billion restructuring plan in its March 2026 SEC filing, with Oracle already logging nearly $1 billion of that — most of it going toward severance.
Co-CEO Mike Silicia laid out the logic during a March 10 earnings call, in comments that look a lot more significant now that the Oracle layoffs are actually underway.
Silicia stated:
“The use of AI coding tools inside Oracle is enabling smaller engineering teams to deliver more complete solutions to our customers more quickly.”
Silicia also pointed to AI-driven improvements in sales lead generation and automated Oracle service delivery. The Oracle layoffs, at this point, look less like panic and more like a calculated move — the company is deliberately shrinking its headcount, and the Oracle stock jump tells you how investors feel about that. Oracle’s remaining performance obligations stood at $523 billion as of the latest report, up 433% year over year. Investment logic, not distress, drives the Oracle layoffs 2026 push. Larry Ellison is, at the moment of writing, making a very expensive bet on AI and cutting jobs to help fund it.
