Oracle CFO Tells Staff to Be 'Thoughtful' With Spending Days After Company's Second Layoff Round

Oracle's Chief Financial Officer Hilary Maxson held an all-hands meeting with employees this week, urging them to be more careful with company resources, just days after Oracle began a fresh round of mass layoffs affecting potentially thousands of jobs worldwide.

What Maxson told employees

According to the Business Insider report, Maxson told staff that they needed to help sustain the company's financial growth, saying, "This means being thoughtful about where we spend our time and money." The comment came after Oracle reported 121 percent growth in its cloud infrastructure revenue. Maxson was careful to clarify that her message wasn't about squeezing more output from a smaller team. "I don't mean doing more with less, which is a phrase that I really, really don't like," she said, according to the report, adding that the focus should instead be on "simplifying processes that don't help customers and making clear choices on where we're going to use our resources where they have the greatest impact." This marked Maxson's first company-wide address since she took over as CFO in April this year.

Second round of layoffs this year

Maxson's comments landed at a difficult moment for Oracle's workforce. The company reportedly began a second round of layoffs on September 14, potentially affecting thousands of employees globally, with staff informed via a 6 am email, per the report. Oracle's total workforce had already shrunk by around 21,000 employees, or 13 percent, in the fiscal year ended May 31, 2026, following its first layoff round. As many as 3,000 employees in India are believed to be impacted this time, though Oracle has not officially confirmed the number. Reports indicate product engineering teams in India are likely to bear the brunt of the cuts, with support and consulting functions expected to be less affected.

Layoffs went unaddressed at the meeting

Despite the timing, the roughly hour-long all-hands meeting reportedly did not directly address the layoffs. Instead, Maxson and other Oracle executives steered the conversation toward growth, customer demand, and opportunities tied to artificial intelligence. Oracle co-CEO Mike Sicilia also spoke at the meeting, urging employees to evaluate their work through the lens of customer impact. "I'd ask you to keep asking a very simple question: How does the work that I'm doing help deliver a better outcome for a customer?" he said, according to the report.

Heavy AI spending amid cost discipline

The messaging reflects a broader balancing act at Oracle as it pours money into AI infrastructure while simultaneously trimming headcount. The company has reportedly taken on tens of billions of dollars in debt to fund data centre and AI infrastructure expansion. Oracle's first-quarter capital expenditure came in at $28.5 billion, sharply up from $8.5 billion a year earlier, and the company has maintained its fiscal 2027 capital expenditure forecast at $90 billion to $95 billion.

Part of a wider tech layoff wave

Oracle joins a growing list of technology companies, including Uber, Microsoft, Amazon, and PayPal, that have reduced their workforce in recent months. According to Layoffs.fyi, 303 tech companies have carried out job cuts so far this year as the industry continues to restructure around AI-driven priorities.

Published on: Thursday, September 17, 2026, 12:18 PM IST