AI Push: Oracle, Microsoft and Meta Pour Money Into Infrastructure

Oracle, Microsoft and Meta have made AI adoption their growth strategy: in April 2026, Oracle cut almost 30,000 employees to redirect the freed-up funds to building infrastructure for artificial intelligence.

Why is Oracle laying off 30,000 people?

Larry Ellison, Oracle's chairman and chief technology officer, explained the logic behind the cuts himself. In his view, the winners of the next technology cycle are those who are already building AI infrastructure today: data centers, compute clusters, and networks for training and running large models.

Cutting 30,000 employees will free up as much as $12 billion a year. Over several years, that money will cover large-scale investment: by 2027, Oracle plans to put $70 billion into building data centers around the world. The company is making a deliberate choice: compute capacity instead of jobs wherever possible.

• Date of Oracle's layoffs: April 2026, about 30,000 employees
• Planned investment in data centers: $70 billion by 2027
• Expected annual savings from the layoffs: up to $12 billion
• Total number of tech-sector layoffs over two years: about 165,000 people

Who else has carried out mass layoffs?

Oracle is not an exception but part of a systemic trend. Over the past two years, the largest tech companies have steadily cut staff, shifting the freed-up budgets into AI investment.

In 2026, Microsoft laid off 15,000 employees, one of the largest cuts in the corporation's history. In May 2026, Meta let go of 8,000 workers, saying it needed to invest in AI. Over two years, Amazon parted ways with almost 50,000 people. In total, about 165,000 specialists at large Western tech companies alone have lost their jobs.

"The winners will be those who build infrastructure for AI,"

Larry Ellison says.

Notably, the layoffs are not driven by financial trouble: Microsoft, Meta and Oracle are all reporting record revenue. This is a deliberate reallocation of resources, from human labor to compute capacity.

Will the wave reach Russia?

So far, mass layoffs are mainly a Western story. But signs of a cooling labor market are already visible in Russia too: companies have become much more selective in hiring, some sectors are seeing "hidden" layoffs without public announcements, and wage growth has slowed or stopped completely.

Junior specialists are especially vulnerable. When companies cut staff costs and adopt AI tools at the same time, the value of an employee with minimal experience drops first. Transitions in the history of technology have always come with a reshuffling of the labor market, and the current AI transition will be no exception.

For careers in 2026–2027, this means that simply knowing how to "write code" is becoming insufficient. Those who can work with AI tools and use them to multiply their own productivity will be in demand.

What this means

Tech giants are systematically betting on AI infrastructure while cutting conventional staff. For specialists, and especially beginners, the signal is clear: learn AI tools faster than the cooling wave reaches your sector.

Frequently asked questions

How much will Oracle cut its personnel costs?

Cutting 30,000 employees will free up as much as $12 billion a year for Oracle. That is the amount the company intends to redirect to funding data centers and AI infrastructure.

When will Oracle invest $70 billion in data centers?

According to the company, total investment in data center construction will reach $70 billion by 2027.

*Meta is designated an extremist organization and banned in Russia.

Why are companies directing funds to AI infrastructure?

According to Larry Ellison of Oracle, the winners of the next technology cycle are those who are building AI infrastructure today: data centers and compute clusters.