technology

Oracle cuts thousands in largest-ever layoffs via 6AM email

Oracle sent a 6AM email saying roles were eliminated effective immediately, cutting about 10,000 so far with estimates up to 30,000, and asking employees to sign DocuSign paperwork and provide a personal email before access to systems was turned off.

Apr 3rd 2026 · United States

Insights

  • Oracle sent a 6AM March 31 email telling employees their roles were eliminated and that today was their last working day.
  • About 10,000 employees are believed cut so far, with estimates up to 20,000 to 30,000, roughly 18% of Oracle's 162,000 workforce.
  • Severance was contingent on signing termination paperwork via DocuSign and employees were asked to submit a personal email before company systems were deactivated.
  • The layoffs affected senior engineers, architects, operations leaders, program managers and teams across Cloud, Health, NetSuite, Sales and Customer Success, and were reported not to be performance-based.
  • Oracle has taken on $58 billion in new debt to build AI data centers while its stock has fallen sharply, and the company declined to comment.