Oracle’s Layoffs Need Rethinking of the Future of Employment

Last month Oracle (NYSE: ORCL) announced impressive third quarter results. The results helped the stock climb 10% in the after-hours trading session. But the stock has still fallen nearly 25% so far this year. Despite the strong financial performance, Oracle’s workforce was not immune to layoffs as it announced a more than 15% reduction in workforce.

Oracle’s Financials

Revenue for the third quarter grew 22% to $17.19 billion, ahead of analyst estimates of $16.91 billion. Net income of $1.79 per share was also ahead of market estimates of $1.70 per share for the quarter.

By segment, its cloud revenue, including infrastructure and SaaS revenues grew 44% to $8.9 billion, ahead of the market consensus of $8.85 billion. Software revenues grew 3% to $6.1 billion, and Services revenues increased 12% to $1.4 billion. Hardware revenues also showed recovery and climbed 2% to $714 million.

Oracle expects to end the current year with revenues of $90 billion, ahead of the analyst estimates of $86.6 billion.

Oracle’s stock is trading at $150.30 with a market capitalization of $413.2 billion. It was trading at a 52-week high of $345.72 in September. The stock hit a 52-week low of $121.24 in April last year. 

Oracle’s AI Focus

Like with other tech stocks, the market has been concerned about AI impacting Oracle’s business model. But Oracle is not overly worried. It believes that it is successfully leveraging AI coding tools with developers to accelerate its SaaS business, especially to build solutions that enable entire ecosystems across numerous industries. AI coding tools are helping Oracle enable smaller engineering teams to deliver more complete solutions to its customers more quickly. Besides embedding AI agents into their existing solutions, Oracle is also building new SaaS products using AI. Some of the new applications they have built are focused on CX use cases and support lead generation and qualification, sales orchestration, and automated selling. Oracle claims to have already delivered over 1,000 Oracle-built agents inside its back office and industry applications. These industry focused agents such as the AI-powered integrated EHR is delivering reduced administrative overhead and increased provider satisfaction. They have similar agents deployed in other industries including retail and banking. These capabilities are available to its customers at no additional cost.

Layoffs at Oracle

The increased adoption of AI has also resulted in significant layoffs by Oracle. On March 31^st, the company laid off an estimated 18% of its workforce, or 20-30,000 employees globally. India was the worst hit region which saw 12,000 role eliminations from its 30,000-employee count. Business functions that were focused on legacy software maintenance, on-premises support, and traditional SaaS operations saw the deepest cuts. Analysts believe that Oracle announced these measures to rebalance its cash flow into AI-infrastructure development. Oracle is not the only player following this playbook.

As of April 2026, the global tech industry has recorded 78,557 layoffs, with 76.7% occurring in U.S. companies. While giants like Oracle (25,000+), Amazon (16,000), and Block (4,000) lead the charge, a disturbing pattern has emerged.

According to research by Alan Cohen (RationalFX), nearly half of these job losses are now explicitly tied to “AI Restructuring.” However, a deeper analysis suggests that AI is often being used as an “AI-as-an-excuse” narrative to justify aggressive cost-cutting and boost sagging stock prices. Companies like Oracle have automated the termination process itself, firing thousands via 6:00 AM emails—a cold-blooded approach that reflects a total deficit of empathy and human kindness.

The 1Mby1M Perspective: Stop Being the Victim

There is only one permanent solution to this trend of mass layoffs and “AI-driven” displacement: Learn to become an entrepreneur. You don’t have to build a “Unicorn.” You just need to solve a real problem, build a sustainable business, and create your own livelihood. This tsunami of layoffs will continue; paralysis is not a solution. * If you have been laid off: Now is the time to pivot your skills toward a venture you own.

If you still have a job: Now is the perfect time to consider bootstrapping a startup with a paycheck before the next 6:00 AM email arrives.

Take Action Now

• For the Displaced: Equity-Free Accelerator for Laid-Off Techies | 1Mby1M
• For the Part-Time Founder Hedging Against Layoffs: Bootstrap with a Paycheck through 1Mby1M
• Free Mentoring: Join our Free Mentoring Roundtables for Startup Founders to get direct feedback on your idea.
• Rapid Validation: Use the 1Mby1M AI Mentor to stress-test your business model 24/7.

Master the Strategy: Enroll in the Udemy AI Mentor Prompt Course to learn how to use AI to build—not replace—your future.

About 1Mby1M:

One Million by One Million (1Mby1M) is the first global virtual accelerator in the world, founded in 2010 by Silicon Valley serial Entrepreneur Sramana Mitra. It offers a fully online entrepreneurship incubation, acceleration and education resource for solo entrepreneurs and bootstrapped founders working on tech and tech-enabled services ventures.

1Mby1M does not charge equity, offers an AI Mentor available 24/7 in 57 languages, and offers a compelling alternative to Y Combinator and other equity accelerators.

Disclosure: All investors should make their own assessments based on their own research, informed interpretations, and risk appetite. This article expresses my own opinions based on my own research of product-market fit, channel execution, and other factors. My primary interest is in product strategy. While this may have bearing on stock movements, my writings tend to focus on long-term implications. The information presented is illustrative and educational, but should not be regarded as a complete analysis nor recommendation to buy or sell the securities mentioned herein. I am not a registered investment adviser and I am not receiving compensation for this article. I am an investor in this company.

Photo credit: Joey Rozier/Flickr.com.