Oracle clarifies layoff speculation, while defending the OpenAI partnership

Oracle issued a public statement to address reports linking its massive infrastructure spending to potential large-scale job cuts. The company clarified its financial relationship with OpenAI and addressed market concerns.

Oracle’s statement on social media platform X aimed to decouple its partnership with OpenAI from recent news about a stalled USD 100 billion investment proposal from NVIDIA into OpenAI. Oracle stated that the non-binding NVIDIA-OpenAI deal had ‘zero-impact’ on its own financial agreements.

The NVIDIA-OpenAI deal has zero impact on our financial relationship with OpenAI. We remain highly confident in OpenAI’s ability to raise funds and meet its commitments.

— Oracle (@Oracle) February 2, 2026

The company maintains high confidence in OpenAI’s ability to raise capital and fulfill its multi-year purchase orders. This reassurance comes at a time when analysts have scrutinised the circular financing models of the AI boom, where chipmakers and cloud providers invest in the same companies that pay them for services.

Reports of mass layoffs

While Oracle has not officially announced new job cuts, reports from investment bank TD Cowne suggest the company is considering reducing its workforce by 20,000 to 30,000 employees. Although the numbers are massive, such a move can free up an estimated USD 8 billion to 10 billion in annual cash flow.

The move is being viewed as a method to fund the USD 156 billion in capital expenditure required to support OpenAI’s needs, which include the procurement of nearly three million GPUs. And if enacted in future, these would be the largest layoffs in Oracle’s history, following a restructuring in late 2025 that impacted 10,000 workers.

Financing the AI build-out

The clarification follows Oracle’s announcement of a USD 45 billion to USD 50 billion capital raise for 2026. The funding strategy involves raising to USD 20 billion through an at-the-market equity program and mandatory convertible preferred securities to protect its credit rating. A one-time issuance of investment-grade senior unsecured bonds led by Goldman Sachs.

While the strategy looks great, the industry has shown caution recently, with some U.S. banks reportedly pulling back from financing Oracle-linked data centre projects. This has pushed Oracle to seek alternative funding methods.

Portfolio shifting

In terms to narrow its focus on AI infrastructure, Oracle is reportedly mulling the sale of Cerner, the healthcare software unit it acquired for USD 28.3 billion in 2022. The move would allow Oracle to redirect resources toward its high-growth Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) business.

Reportedly, the company is also exploring a ‘bring your own chip’ model. This arrangement can allow large clients to supply their own hardware, shifting some of the immense capital requirements off Oracle’s balance sheet.