Tech Layoff Rate Hits 20-Year High as Oracle, Microsoft Cut Jobs for AI

MacroIndustry Impact 4
โดย 24/7 Wall St.·US·Read original
Summary · why it matters

The information sector's layoff rate jumped to 2.3% in June, surpassing peaks from the 2008 financial crisis and 2001 recession, as 63,000 workers were cut. Oracle eliminated 21,000 jobs, representing 13% of its workforce and one-third of the quarter's total, explicitly citing AI deployment in its 10-K filing. Microsoft cut roughly 4,800 positions, or 2.1% of its global workforce, while Cisco and Intuit redirected labor savings into AI infrastructure. AI accounted for 23% of all 2026 U.S. job cut announcements through June, though some companies may use the label to dress up ordinary cost-cutting.

Impact on stocks 5

Cloud & Digital Infrastructure · 2 stocks
Oracle Corporation
ORCL
▼ NegativeCapitalrelevance

Oracle eliminated 21,000 jobs, 13% of its workforce, explicitly citing AI deployment in its 10-K filing.

Intuit Inc
INTU
± MixedCapitalrelevance

Intuit redirected labor savings into AI infrastructure, but no direct impact on its own operations.

Artificial Intelligence · 2 stocks
Microsoft Corporation
MSFT
▼ NegativeCapitalrelevance

Microsoft cut roughly 4,800 positions, or 2.1% of its global workforce, as part of AI-driven job reductions.

Cisco Systems Inc
CSCO
± MixedCapitalrelevance

Cisco redirected labor savings into AI infrastructure, but no direct impact on its own operations.

Consumer Discretionary · 1 stocks

Theme Impact 3

Related news

IREN Fair Value Trimmed to US$79.03 as AI Cloud Wins Meet Build Out Risks

IREN's fair value estimate has been trimmed from US$80.93 to US$79.03, a modest adjustment reflecting a mix of growing AI cloud contracts and ongoing questions around execution and supply build out through 2027. The revision lifts revenue growth assumptions to 168.01% from 125.79% and net profit margin expectations to 11.73% from 5.79%, while the future P/E assumption drops to 31.26x from 90.29x and the discount rate rises to 9.41% from 8.83%. On the bullish side, JPMorgan shifted IREN from Underweight to Overweight with a US$65 price target, citing a partnership with Nvidia, new customer signings and higher industry pricing, while H.C. Wainwright raised its target to US$90 after IREN announced US$2.8b of new multi year AI cloud contracts and lifted its 2026 AI cloud annual recurring revenue target to more than US$4b. Northland initiated IREN at Outperform with a US$99 price target, and Freedom Capital upgraded the stock from Hold to Buy. Freedom Capital nonetheless flagged execution on supply additions over the next two years as a central risk, noting the story depends heavily on adding capacity on schedule.
Simply Wall St·9hRead more →
impact 4

Nvidia-Backed Nscale Files for US IPO After $1.02 Billion Loss

Nscale, the London-based AI data center developer backed by Nvidia and Microsoft, filed publicly for an initial public offering in New York, seeking to raise as much as $3 billion. The company reported a net loss of $1.02 billion on revenue of $140.6 million for the six months ended June 30, compared with a net loss of $368.9 million on revenue of $10.4 million a year earlier, according to its Friday filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Spun off from a cryptocurrency mining operation in early 2024, Nscale was valued at about $14.6 billion in a March Series C round led by Aker ASA and 8090 Industries, with Nvidia and Nokia Oyj also participating. The company has agreed to add more than 30,000 Nvidia chips to an existing rental agreement with Microsoft at its Narvik, Norway gigafactory, and Anthropic has agreed to spend $45 billion to rent AI cloud computing power from its flagship West Virginia data center development. The offering is being led by Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley, with shares expected to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol NSCL.
Bloomberg·10hRead more →
2

Tigress Analyst Raises Alphabet Price Target to Street-High $485

Tigress Financial Partners analyst Ivan Feinseth reiterated a Strong Buy rating on Alphabet and raised his price target to a Street-high $485 from $415, implying roughly 39.6% upside. The bullish thesis centers on Alphabet turning its massive AI investments into growth across Search, Cloud and Gemini, with Feinseth arguing AI Overviews and AI Mode can make Google more useful for complex, high-intent queries. Recent results support that argument: Alphabet's second-quarter revenue rose 24% from a year earlier to $119.8 billion, Search and Other revenue increased 17%, YouTube advertising grew 13%, and operating income climbed 30% to $40.77 billion. Google Cloud revenue surged 82% to $24.8 billion, operating income more than tripled to $8.8 billion, margins reached 35.6%, and its $514 billion backlog gives visibility into future enterprise demand. Gemini has reached 950 million monthly active users, more than 9 million monthly developers and roughly 22 billion API tokens processed per minute, and Feinseth sees monetization opportunities across subscriptions, APIs, enterprise software, agents and productivity products, though the risk remains that Alphabet must prove its enormous AI spending generates sufficient returns.
GuruFocus·11hRead more →