Oracle Corp (NYSE: ORCL) is reportedly planning another round of job cuts this month as it seeks to rein in costs amid its heavy spending on AI infrastructure and rising debt. The tech giant has asked managers to compile lists of potentially impacted employees to trim the payroll by the start of the second quarter on September 1, reported Business Insider on Wednesday, citing an internal document and other sources.

The move is a strategic step to alleviate the financial burden caused by the company’s heavy investment in AI infrastructure, which has resulted in billions in debt. Oracle did not immediately respond to Benzinga’s request for comments.

AI Costs Drive Oracle Job Cuts

Oracle’s job cuts come in the wake of its massive AI buildout costs. The company announced plans to raise $50 billion in debt and equity in January, and its free cash flow in the last fiscal year was a negative $23.7 billion. Capital expenditure also surged 162% to $55.7 billion for the period.

The company revealed in its annual filing that it slashed about 21,000 jobs, or 13% of its workforce, over the past year as it accelerated AI adoption and broader restructuring. Its workforce fell from 162,000 to 141,000 by May 2026. The company spent $1.8 billion on restructuring costs, including severance and exit expenses, up sharply from $374 million a year earlier.

Key Details

No specific headcount reductions were provided for the current round, though reports indicate double-digit percentage cuts in some teams.

Industry Context

Oracle is not alone in this predicament. Other tech giants have also been slashing their workforce to offset the enormous capital expenditure on AI infrastructure. For instance, Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ: META) laid off 8,000 employees, roughly 10% of its workforce, in May, and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) offered voluntary buyouts to 7% of its U.S. employees in April.

What the Numbers Show

The scale of Oracle’s capital expenditure surge highlights the intensity of its AI infrastructure push. With capital expenditure rising 162% to $55.7 billion while free cash flow turned negative at $23.7 billion, the company is leveraging significant debt financing to bridge the gap. The planned workforce reduction aims to mitigate operational costs against this backdrop of heavy investment.

Oracle Targets FY2029 Cash Flow

Despite the financial strain, Oracle remains optimistic about its position in the AI infrastructure market. BNP Paribas analyst Stefan Slowinski stated that Oracle is well positioned in a supplier-friendly AI infrastructure market, with attractive contract economics and a potential free-cash-flow inflection beginning in fiscal 2029.

Oracle plans to raise $40 billion in fiscal 2027, including $20 billion through an equity ATM program and another $20 billion through yet-to-be-determined debt, equity, or a combination. The analyst said Oracle’s nearly $90 billion in financing across FY2026–FY2027 could fund its current investment cycle until the business becomes cash-generative and self-sustaining from FY2029 onward.

ORCL Price Action: On a year-to-date basis, the stock declined 21.68%, as per Benzinga Pro. On Wednesday, ORCL ended 5.36% higher at $153.28.

Oracle and Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced the general availability of Oracle Exadata Database Service on Exascale Infrastructure on Oracle AI Database@AWS. The firms also signed an expanded long-term strategic collaboration agreement focused on accelerating customer migration to the platform. This development coincides with a broader expansion of Oracle's cloud capabilities, including a new partnership in quantum computing.

The new service extends Exadata performance and pay-per-use economics to organizations of any size. It brings Exadata-class performance to Oracle AI Database workloads regardless of scale. Oracle shares were up 0.31% at $153.76 on Thursday, reflecting positive sentiment around these infrastructure announcements.

Expanded Availability and Capabilities

Oracle AI Database@AWS expanded to 22 AWS Regions spanning Asia Pacific, Europe and the Americas. The platform added new capabilities that provide enterprises a lower-cost path to migrate Oracle databases. These updates also facilitate integration with AWS analytics and AI services.

Oracle senior vice president Nathan Thomas said the database service has reached global scale just a year after its initial launch, pointing to strong enterprise demand for a simpler, lower-cost way to modernize Oracle workloads within AWS. AWS vice president Ganapathy Krishnamoorthy said the past year's adoption reflects the value customers see when running Oracle database workloads directly within AWS.

Quantum Computing Partnership

Oracle’s cloud expansion this week also included a multi-year partnership with Quantinuum Inc to bring the company's Helios quantum computer to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. This deal gives customers access to quantum hardware alongside Oracle's existing GPU and high-performance computing resources.

Quantinuum CEO Rajeeb Hazra said the next phase of enterprise computing will come from combining quantum, AI and high-performance computing into a single environment. The deal makes Oracle the latest major cloud provider to add quantum hardware access, following similar moves by AWS and Microsoft's Azure.

Customer Adoption

Several organizations are already running business-critical workloads on Oracle AI Database@AWS. Key customers include:

• CJ Olive Young
• Kobalt Music Group
• Metropolitan Transport Authority of Barcelona

What the Numbers Show

The expansion to 22 AWS Regions indicates a significant geographic scaling of the joint infrastructure offering. This broad availability supports the stated goal of accelerating customer migration by reducing latency and data residency constraints for global enterprises. The focus on "pay-per-use economics" alongside "Exadata-class performance" suggests a strategy to capture smaller or variable-scale workloads that previously may have required dedicated hardware commitments. The addition of quantum computing capabilities positions Oracle to compete directly with AWS and Microsoft Azure in emerging high-performance computing segments.