Oracle cut around 21,000 jobs last year as it sharpened its focus on artificial intelligence and poured money into data-centre capacity.
The reductions trimmed the company’s head count by around 13% in the previous fiscal year; as of the end of May Oracle had approximately 141,000 full-time employees, down from 162,000 at the end of the prior fiscal year.
Oracle began the process of reducing its workforce in March and recorded $1.84 billion in severance and other costs tied to restructuring as part of an existing plan under which it said it will continue to make adjustments.
"The adoption and deployment of AI technologies across our operations have resulted, and may continue to result, in reductions to our workforce," the company said.
The company said it has made significant investments to build AI into its product set and warned that higher-than-expected costs to build and support AI products or stronger competitor uptake could prevent it from recouping those investments.
It expects to spend a net $70 billion this fiscal year on capital projects, up from $55.7 billion in the preceding fiscal year, and earlier reporting said OpenAI is expected to purchase around $300 billion in computing capacity over approximately five years.
Oracle also warned that the substantial financing required to expand its data-centre footprint is likely to pressure profit margins.
