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Oracle layoffs reached Abilene, Texas, on September 14, hitting workers at its flagship Stargate data center. The job cuts came as Oracle continues expanding AI infrastructure and supporting its OpenAI partnership through Stargate. An OCI employee said access to Slack and the facility stopped before the termination email arrived. The employee discovered the job loss after a security badge failed at the gate.
The Abilene cuts reportedly affected Oracle staff supporting the Crusoe-operated facility, while other teams faced reductions across several locations. Employees reported losing corporate logins around 4 a.m. Eastern Time, followed by Slack access several hours later. The company then sent termination emails explaining a broader organizational change.
The employee, an IC2 in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, reportedly joined Oracle on February 2. The worker said the latest performance review recorded a ‘meets expectations’ rating before the termination. Another employee report said Customer Hardware Support roles also faced cuts across Abilene, Phoenix, and Ashburn.
Abilene carries unusual importance within Oracle’s AI expansion strategy and the broader Stargate project. Oracle highlighted the Texas campus as a major operating site supporting OpenAI workloads. OpenAI previously confirmed that Stargate I in Abilene had begun running training and inference workloads.
The layoffs therefore add a new layer to Oracle’s aggressive AI infrastructure push. The job cuts do not imply Oracle has ended the OpenAI partnership or stepped down from the Abilene facility. They instead show simultaneous workforce restructuring and heavy spending on computing capacity.
Oracle spent USD 28.5 billion on capital expenditure during its latest fiscal first quarter. The figure marked a sharp increase from USD 8.5 billion in the comparable period last year. Oracle also maintained a fiscal 2027 capital spending forecast between USD 90 billion and USD 95 billion.
The company had already reduced its workforce by about 21,000 employees during fiscal 2026. Oracle ended that period with roughly 141,000 employees before the September layoffs began.
Oracle also increased its restructuring estimate by approximately USD 700 million, raising the expected cost to nearly USD 2.8 billion. The company linked parts of the restructuring effort to efficiency measures and AI adoption across selected functions.
The reported severance formula offers four weeks of base salary plus another week for each year served. The latest reports do not confirm a maximum cap for the current plan.
The Abilene layoffs highlight the tension between Oracle’s expanding AI infrastructure and its workforce restructuring. The Stargate facility continues operating while Oracle simultaneously reduces staffing tied to its broader operations.
Also Read: Oracle Layoffs 2026: 6 AM Emails Shock Long-Tenured Staff
