12,000 jobs in India hit? Oracle begins mass layoffs amid AI push

BENGALURU: Oracle has started notifying employees about thousands of job cuts as the tech major navigates pressures arising from aggressive expansion into AI data centre infrastructure.

Some reports suggested that up to 12,000 jobs in India could be affected, though this could not be independently verified. The company employs close to 30,000 in India. An email sent to the company didn't elicit a response till press time.

The layoffs have significantly impacted staff at its India development centres, with roles understood to be affected across Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications division as well as Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, including engineering, data centre operations, and AI/ML functions.

Like their peers in the US, several Oracle India employees were caught off guard by early-morning layoff notifications, with some receiving emails from leadership as early as 6am or late evening in India.

According to an internal email to affected employees, reported by Business Insider, the company said it had "made the decision to eliminate your role as part of a broader organisational change", adding that the day of notification would be the employee's last working day.

Employees have been asked to immediately provide a personal email address to receive follow-up communication, including FAQs and separation-related documents. The company clarified these email IDs will be used solely for correspondence related to severance and transition support.

TOI spoke to several affected employees who said the process felt highly impersonal, with layoff notices sent via email and minimal direct communication from managers. The sudden move left many feeling anxious and unsupported during the transition.

“I tried logging into the Oracle OCNA VPN, which is specific to my work domain, but couldn’t access it. Even my Slack credentials stopped working. None of us expected this to happen so abruptly,” one employee said.