Oracle is weighing cuts of 20,000 to 30,000 employees, roughly 12 to 18 percent of its global workforce, to free up cash for a data-center expansion that investment bank TD Cowen estimates will require $156 billion in capital expenditure. The reductions would generate $8 billion to $10 billion in annual savings, according to a TD Cowen research report. Oracle is also considering a sale of Cerner, the health-care software unit it acquired for $28.3 billion in 2022.
The financial pressure stems from Oracle’s commitments to build cloud infrastructure for OpenAI, Meta, and xAI. Capital expenditure jumped from $6.9 billion in fiscal 2024 to $21.2 billion in fiscal 2025, with guidance of $50 billion for the current fiscal year.
Multiple US banks have pulled back from Oracle-linked data-center project lending, roughly doubling the interest rate premiums they charge since September. The higher costs have stalled deals and prevented Oracle from securing leased capacity that private operators would normally build on its behalf. Asian banks have stepped in at premium rates, but that solves only the international side of Oracle’s buildout.
Oracle has already raised approximately $58 billion in debt over two months — $38 billion for facilities in Texas and Wisconsin, $20 billion for New Mexico. TD Cowen said the company plans $45 billion to $50 billion in additional debt and equity raises in 2026. The OpenAI contract alone requires Oracle to deliver three million GPUs over five years, and OpenAI has already shifted near-term capacity needs to Microsoft and Amazon.
The financing bottleneck is reshaping Oracle’s broader customer relationships. Oracle was “notably absent” from the list of companies with major long-term US data-center roadmaps, TD Cowen said. Private operators who would normally sign large deals with Oracle are holding back as the market digests the company’s financing constraints.
To reduce capital requirements, Oracle has begun requiring 40 percent upfront deposits from new customers and is exploring “bring your own chip” arrangements where clients supply their own hardware. Both options carry risks: BYOC could require renegotiating existing contracts, while major layoffs could undermine Oracle’s ability to execute its infrastructure plans. The company cut an estimated 10,000 jobs in late 2025 as part of a $1.6 billion restructuring plan. Cloud infrastructure revenue grew 66 percent year over year in the three months ended November 30, with GPU-related infrastructure up 177 percent.
