Oracle is preparing to carry out job cuts over the coming months, Bloomberg News and the Financial Times reported on March 12.
AI is cited as improving work efficiency, and companies are also seeking to secure funds for high-cost data centre investments.
Oracle disclosed in a filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it set aside an additional $500 million in restructuring costs. That brought restructuring funds for the fiscal year to a total of $2.1 billion. The amount is sharply higher than the previous fiscal year and could be enough to cut thousands of jobs, the FT reported.
Oracle is under pressure from investors as it pours large sums into building large-scale AI data centres. Rishi Jaluria, an analyst at Royal Bank of Canada, said: "If it increased restructuring by $500 million in a single quarter, it has a plan to cut staff." He added: "Oracle is signalling layoffs, or restructuring, across a broader scope than at the start of this fiscal year."
Oracle has suggested it can reduce the number of developers thanks to AI coding tools. In its earnings statement, it said: "We have been able to create more software in less time with fewer people."
Earlier, Block and Atlassian also announced large-scale job cuts citing AI.
Chi-gyu Hwang
delight@d-today.co.kr