There you have it! Oracle wrote it in its annual SEC filing: "the adoption and deployment of AI t…
September 29, 2026 · 0 likes · 0 comments
AI Workforce
There you have it! Oracle wrote it in its annual SEC filing: "the adoption and deployment of AI technologies across our operations have resulted, and may continue to result, in reductions to our workforce."
And the number behind that sentence is 162,000 employees down to about 141,000 in one fiscal year, a 13% cut, roughly 21,000 people.
For two years I've been told AI isn't really taking jobs, that it's just a convenient excuse for over-hiring, that it's "augmentation." Oracle just ended that debate under penalty of securities law, and honestly I don't expect many of the experts who kept saying that on TV to mention it.
Oracle spent $55.7 billion on capex in fiscal 2026, more than double the year before, building AI data centers. Free cash flow went to negative $23.7 billion. So they borrowed $43 billion, sold another $5 billion in stock, and TD Cowen estimates the job cuts free up $8 to $10 billion, which conveniently helps service that debt.
The workers are paying for the machines that replace them.
Oracle cut 546 people from its cloud infrastructure unit, a business whose revenue grew 121% year over year, and the hardest-hit single title was Software Developer III. Managers were almost a quarter of the cuts, most of the people named were over 40, and about one in six was 60 or older. Unvested stock forfeited, severance capped at 26 weeks.
And next year Oracle plans to spend another $90 to $95 billion on data centers.
Oracle is hardly alone. 225,122 tech workers laid off this year as of September 25, about 837 every working day, already more than all of 2025. Challenger counted 87,714 cuts blamed on AI through May alone, more than all of last year.
I run my businesses with a fleet of AI agents doing work that used to take teams of engineers, and I love the technology, but I've seen the cost curve up close, and when a company can borrow money to buy compute at a lower cost than payroll, the spreadsheet decides for them every single time.
That's exactly why I wrote REPLACEMENT. Chapter 7 names which jobs go first, and mid-level developers and middle managers were on that list well before Oracle's lawyers put it in a 10-K: https://lnkd.in/gZCFR5Tk
Full breakdown on UnbiasedHeadlines.com: https://lnkd.in/e3Cp-_gs
Also go give a try to my new alpha capability UBHWorld.com. You can play while getting your daily news. The map is huge. We are adding more hidden gems and mini fun games. Soon there will be prizes like swag and books etc. to find around the map! It is a bit slow on older phones and older laptops but Peter is working on fixing that today! He even put the bench I bought in Central Park for my grandma!
If your job lives on a screen, start planning now, not after your company's next filing.
And the number behind that sentence is 162,000 employees down to about 141,000 in one fiscal year, a 13% cut, roughly 21,000 people.
For two years I've been told AI isn't really taking jobs, that it's just a convenient excuse for over-hiring, that it's "augmentation." Oracle just ended that debate under penalty of securities law, and honestly I don't expect many of the experts who kept saying that on TV to mention it.
Oracle spent $55.7 billion on capex in fiscal 2026, more than double the year before, building AI data centers. Free cash flow went to negative $23.7 billion. So they borrowed $43 billion, sold another $5 billion in stock, and TD Cowen estimates the job cuts free up $8 to $10 billion, which conveniently helps service that debt.
The workers are paying for the machines that replace them.
Oracle cut 546 people from its cloud infrastructure unit, a business whose revenue grew 121% year over year, and the hardest-hit single title was Software Developer III. Managers were almost a quarter of the cuts, most of the people named were over 40, and about one in six was 60 or older. Unvested stock forfeited, severance capped at 26 weeks.
And next year Oracle plans to spend another $90 to $95 billion on data centers.
Oracle is hardly alone. 225,122 tech workers laid off this year as of September 25, about 837 every working day, already more than all of 2025. Challenger counted 87,714 cuts blamed on AI through May alone, more than all of last year.
I run my businesses with a fleet of AI agents doing work that used to take teams of engineers, and I love the technology, but I've seen the cost curve up close, and when a company can borrow money to buy compute at a lower cost than payroll, the spreadsheet decides for them every single time.
That's exactly why I wrote REPLACEMENT. Chapter 7 names which jobs go first, and mid-level developers and middle managers were on that list well before Oracle's lawyers put it in a 10-K: https://lnkd.in/gZCFR5Tk
Full breakdown on UnbiasedHeadlines.com: https://lnkd.in/e3Cp-_gs
Also go give a try to my new alpha capability UBHWorld.com. You can play while getting your daily news. The map is huge. We are adding more hidden gems and mini fun games. Soon there will be prizes like swag and books etc. to find around the map! It is a bit slow on older phones and older laptops but Peter is working on fixing that today! He even put the bench I bought in Central Park for my grandma!
If your job lives on a screen, start planning now, not after your company's next filing.