Oracle Corp. (NYSE: ORCL) may be broadening a voluntary separation program for certain U.S. employees, based on screenshots of an internal email circulating on X and Reddit that the company has not confirmed.
The screenshots, which appear to show internal Oracle communication, indicate the VSP is available to an “additional eligible population” effective Oct. 1, framing it as an alternative to a Performance Improvement Plan for eligible U.S. employees who completed documented coaching but did not meet performance expectations.
Eligible employees who voluntarily participate with required approvals would receive six weeks of severance or the applicable severance formula, whichever is greater, according to the purported communication.
The screenshot first surfaced on X from Amanda Goodall, a workforce intelligence strategist and corporate adviser whose labor market commentary has been featured on Fox Business and Yahoo Finance.
“Still unconfirmed, but signs are pointing to another round of layoffs in December as Oracle continues its shift toward becoming a data center company,” Goodall said.
She added: “The voluntary packages may only be the opening move. If the rumors are right, looks like December is when more cuts begin.”
Oracle has not publicly confirmed the program, and the screenshots and related social media posts could not be independently verified, with the company not immediately responding to a request for comment.
The speculation follows a sweeping reduction in Oracle’s headcount over the past year, with the company’s workforce falling by approximately 21,000 employees, or 13%, to 141,000 during its fiscal year ending in May, according to its annual report.
Oracle also carried out another round of layoffs in September, though the full extent of those cuts remains unclear, and the company spent approximately $1.84 billion on restructuring, severance, and other exit costs in fiscal year 2026.
In September, Oracle increased the expected cost of its restructuring plan by an additional $700 million, bringing the projected total to roughly $2.8 billion as the company continues reshaping its workforce around an AI-driven data center strategy.
The cuts are unfolding alongside an aggressive and costly expansion of Oracle’s cloud infrastructure to meet surging demand for AI computing capacity, with the company spending $55.7 billion on capital expenditures in fiscal 2026.
First-quarter fiscal 2027 capital expenditure alone reached $28.5 billion, while Oracle’s remaining performance obligations, a measure of contracted future revenue, surged to $664 billion, reflecting strong long-term demand.
That expansion has also driven substantial financing activity, with Oracle issuing $43 billion in senior notes during fiscal 2026 and carrying $117.7 billion in non-current notes payable and other borrowings as of Aug. 31, alongside $7.6 billion in current borrowings.
Oracle is not alone in trimming its workforce, as the broader tech sector has recorded more than 130,700 layoffs across 312 companies in 2026, according to Layoffs.fyi, with Amazon.com, Dell Technologies, Meta Platforms, Microsoft Corp., and PayPal among those reporting significant job cuts this year.
On Stocktwits, retail sentiment for ORCL dipped over the past week and was rated “bearish” as of early Tuesday, though one trader struck a longer-term optimistic tone, saying: “$ORCL I think it will eventually reach the 300 range again. Look at META. S*** went from low 500 to now 700 plus. Once the fomo starts this old. Donkey will run.”
ORCL shares received a boost last week following reports that Chinese tech giant Tencent signed a $7 billion deal to lease Oracle’s data centers in Southeast Asia, though the stock remains 26.2% down year to date.
