'Uncle Larry’s biggest fan' cut by email in early morning Oracle layoff spree
Foto: The Register
Nearly 10,000 Oracle employees may have lost their jobs overnight, as suggested by a sharp decline in the number of active users on the company's Slack messenger. While official WARN notices currently confirm the layoffs of over a thousand people in the states of Washington and Missouri, the scale of restructuring planned for fiscal year 2026 is significantly larger—the giant has increased its budget for this purpose to $2.1 billion. Among those dismissed were long-time loyalists and developers who learned of their termination in the early morning hours through blocked VPN access and laconic emails. Experts from TD Cowen predict that the reductions could ultimately encompass 20,000 to 30,000 positions. For users and the technology sector, this is a clear signal: Oracle is aggressively shifting capital from human resources to the costly expansion of AI datacenter infrastructure. According to accounts from laid-off engineers, it is artificial intelligence that is taking over their responsibilities in orchestration and process automation. Global corporations are increasingly opting for a model where advanced workflows replace entire project management departments, forcing IT specialists to redefine their roles in a world dominated by algorithms. Oracle's aggressive personnel policy demonstrates that in the era of the PaaS and IaaS arms race, long-term tenure and company loyalty are no longer guarantees of stability.
Tuesday morning for thousands of Oracle employees began with a digital wall. The scenario was repetitive: a first failed attempt to log into the corporate VPN, a second, a third. When the Slack messenger stopped responding, it became clear that this was not a technical failure, but the end of an era. Email messages were already waiting in inboxes with a brief piece of information: your services are no longer needed. Thus began another wave of layoffs at the giant led by Larry Ellison, which, according to unofficial data, could have included up to 10,000 people overnight.
Restructuring for billions of dollars
Official data from WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) documents in individual states provide only a partial picture of the scale of the cuts. In Missouri, specifically in Kansas City, 539 people lost their jobs, representing more than half of all layoffs in that state since the beginning of the year. Meanwhile, in Washington state, Oracle reported a reduction of 491 positions, indicating June 1st as the final date of separation for employees. A 31-page list of positions attached to the filing reveals that the cuts primarily hit Software Developers and Project Managers.
These actions are part of a massive restructuring plan for fiscal year 2026. Originally, in September 2025, the budget for this purpose was estimated at $1.6 billion. In March, however, this amount was raised to $2.1 billion. In the last quarter alone, the company recorded $415 million in restructuring costs, coinciding with reports from Bloomberg about reductions in the Cloud division. Although Oracle refuses to comment on the total number of people laid off, internal data suggests a drastic drop in the number of active Slack users, which may confirm the dark scenario of mass-scale reductions.
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AI as a catalyst and executor of change
For many laid-off workers, including veterans with decades of experience, the reason for the layoffs is obvious: AI. One anonymous interviewee, describing himself as "Uncle Larry’s biggest fan," points directly to artificial intelligence as the force that took his job. According to his analysis, AI will not destroy the entire economy in the short term, but will strike precisely at the largest technology players who possess the appropriate orchestration and process automation.
- Workflow automation: Large enterprises are the fastest to implement AI tools that replace repetitive development tasks.
- Cost optimization: Job reductions are intended to fund massive expenditures on data center infrastructure for AI.
- Competency shift: The company is moving away from traditional roles in favor of positions supporting the new cloud architecture and intelligent systems.
This perspective aligns with forecasts from investment bank TD Cowen from earlier this year. Analysts at the time wondered how Oracle intended to finance the expansion of data centers dedicated to AI. It was suggested that headcount reductions ranging from 20,000 to 30,000 positions might be necessary. Current events appear to be the realization of this scenario, where human capital is being shifted in favor of investments in silicon and algorithms.
Loyalty in the shadow of the algorithm
The story of an employee who stayed with Oracle for decades, from the days of database dominance to the era of PaaS and IaaS, sheds light on the changing corporate culture. Despite the sudden dismissal via email, this veteran does not hide his admiration for Larry Ellison and the path the company has taken. It is a specific type of loyalty, where the employee accepts the heartlessness of market mechanisms as a natural element of "corporate America."
“I'm not surprised. It's corporate America. I wasn't lured by high pay or benefits, though those were great. I'm someone who always carries a laptop with me and if there's a problem to solve, I don't care if it's the weekend or Christmas – I work until I solve it.”
This attitude shows the brutal truth about the modern Big Tech sector: even the highest level of commitment and specialized knowledge do not provide protection in the face of strategic shifts in the company's course. Oracle, which for years built its power on relationships and solid database software, is today becoming an "AI-first" company, where workforce optimization is carried out with the same mathematical precision as resource allocation in the cloud.
The end of the era of sentiment in technology
The events at Oracle are symptomatic of the entire creative and technological industry. The transition from a model based on human capital to one dominated by AI infrastructure forces painful cuts. The fact that the company chooses to communicate separations through VPN access blocks and automated emails testifies to the full automation of human resource management on a mass scale. With such a large number of people being laid off, traditional communication methods are discarded as inefficient.
It can be argued that Oracle is setting a new standard in the industry: radically increasing restructuring funds while simultaneously investing aggressively in AI data centers. For employees, this means that the only constant is change, and their role in the system is increasingly evaluated through the lens of the possibility of replacing their work with automated processes. In a world dominated by IaaS and PaaS, a human becomes another resource that can be turned off with a single script when they no longer fit the current financial model.
