Oracle has extended its latest round of layoffs to Abilene, Texas, home to the company's flagship data centre campus associated with the OpenAI Stargate project, according to employee accounts cited by multiple media reports and discussions on Reddit.
The job cuts reached a site Oracle has repeatedly highlighted as a key component of its AI infrastructure strategy and partnership with OpenAI. Employees affected by the reductions reported losing access to company systems before receiving formal notification of termination.
Layoffs impact employees across multiple teams
According to posts shared on the r/employeesOfOracle subreddit and reported by technology publications monitoring the discussion, some employees discovered they had been laid off only after being locked out of workplace systems.
One employee based in Abilene reportedly said a termination email arrived early in the morning, but they only realised they had been dismissed when their access badge stopped working at the facility entrance. Others reported losing access to Slack, VPNs and internal systems before receiving official communication.
Employees across several functions were said to be affected, including:
- Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI)
- Customer Hardware Support
- Enterprise Engineering
- CI/CD and Observability teams
- Customer Success Services
- Oracle Health
- HR Technology
- Data centre compliance functions
- NetSuite sales operations
Posts cited in reports also suggested layoffs occurred in locations including Phoenix and Ashburn, alongside Abilene.
Abilene remains central to Oracle's AI ambitions
The development is notable because Abilene serves as Oracle's most visible AI infrastructure project and has been repeatedly referenced by the company as evidence of progress in supporting large-scale AI workloads.
The campus has been associated with approximately 200 megawatts of operational capacity and forms part of a broader multi-building expansion effort linked to growing demand for AI computing infrastructure.
Industry reports indicate the facility is leased by Oracle from Crusoe under a long-term agreement reportedly worth more than $1 billion annually. Reports have also noted that OpenAI has chosen not to expand further at the site, instead favouring facilities equipped with newer Nvidia hardware.
The layoffs highlight a growing contrast between rising AI infrastructure investment and workforce reductions across parts of the technology sector.
Oracle has not publicly commented on the reported job cuts.
Severance details emerge from employee accounts
Affected employees who discussed their exits online said Oracle's severance package includes:
- Four weeks of base salary
- One additional week of pay for each completed year of service
Reports noted that a previous version of Oracle's severance framework included a cap of 26 weeks, while recent documents shared by employees reportedly did not mention a maximum limit.
Individual severance outcomes varied depending on tenure. Employees with less than a year of service reported receiving four weeks of pay, while longer-serving staff reported higher payouts based on years worked.
AI spending continues to accelerate
The layoffs come as Oracle continues one of the most aggressive infrastructure investment programmes in the technology industry.
According to the company's financial disclosures:
- First-quarter capital expenditure reached $28.5 billion
- The figure stood at $8.5 billion during the same period a year earlier
- Oracle maintained its fiscal 2027 capital expenditure outlook of $90 billion to $95 billion
- The company increased its restructuring programme by roughly $700 million, bringing the total to about $2.8 billion
Oracle has also linked parts of its restructuring efforts to the growing adoption of AI across business functions.
Company filings previously showed Oracle's workforce declining by approximately 21,000 employees in the year ended 31 May, leaving total headcount at around 141,000 before the latest round of layoffs.
Restructuring unfolds alongside AI expansion
The latest cuts underscore the complex reality facing major technology companies as they balance record spending on AI infrastructure with efforts to streamline operations and improve efficiency.
While Oracle continues to invest heavily in cloud capacity and AI-related projects, including facilities supporting advanced AI models, the workforce impact of those investments is becoming increasingly visible. Industry observers are likely to watch closely for further details on how Oracle aligns its staffing strategy with its expanding AI ambitions.