Tech companies sent a clear message on September 13: record profits mean it's time to fire people. Makes perfect sense, right? Oracle's stock hit an all-time high this week, driven by what CEO Larry Ellison called a "truly historic quarter" of AI-driven demand, just weeks after the company laid off over 3,000 employees worldwide in August and September.
Larry Ellison added $100 billion to his net worth the same week 3,000+ people got fired. The American Dream, folks. Wall Street rewarded the job cuts with Oracle's stock jumping 36% to record highs near $150 per share, because human misery equals profit optimization in 2025.
Oracle's not alone in this strategy. The pattern has emerged across virtually every major tech company: Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Meta, and Tesla have all reduced headcount in 2025 despite reporting strong earnings driven by AI investments and cloud computing growth.
The Numbers Don't Add Up
The tech sector leads layoffs in 2025, with companies cutting 143,619 jobs across 518 layoff events - that's 561 people losing their jobs every single day.
Oracle's September performance is a perfect example of this fucked up logic. Record quarterly results, cloud revenue up 45%, and they still axe 187 workers in Redwood City, 36 in Pleasanton, and 31 in Santa Clara.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy explicitly told employees in June that AI advancement means Amazon "expects to operate with a smaller headcount in coming years." Meanwhile, Amazon's Q2 2025 revenue increased 11% to $148 billion, with AWS cloud services posting 19% growth.
According to Challenger, Gray & Christmas data, the tech sector ranks second only to government in layoffs through August 2025, with companies cutting jobs at a rate unseen since the early pandemic period.
The AI Investment Squeeze
The real reason for these layoffs isn't traditional cost-cutting during downturns - it's simple math: AI infrastructure is expensive as hell. D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria has identified the pattern: AI expenditures are forcing tech leaders to reduce costs elsewhere to maintain profit margins.
Oracle's blowing massive cash on GPU clusters and data centers. Those Nvidia H100 chips cost $40K each - and Oracle's cloud revenue is up 45%, but that growth ain't cheap when you're trying to compete with AWS and Google Cloud.
CRN reported that over 300 employees in California and Washington got fired via Zoom calls disguised as "project update" meetings. That's peak corporate psychopathy right there. TechCrunch's layoffs database shows this is becoming the standard playbook across Silicon Valley.
Fire people, buy GPUs, watch stock price moon. That's the Silicon Valley formula for 2025. Oracle's stock price jumped 36% to record highs near $150 per share after announcing the layoffs.
Microsoft's doing the exact same thing. The company's AI investments exceeded $50 billion in fiscal 2025, including massive data center construction and Nvidia chip purchases, while simultaneously reducing workforce across multiple divisions. Their Azure AI services revenue grew 400% year-over-year, validating the investment strategy despite employment reductions. Microsoft's total capex hit $80 billion in 2025, mostly for AI infrastructure.
The Automation Acceleration
Goldman Sachs research shows AI could displace 6-7% of U.S. jobs over the next decade - approximately 375 million workers worldwide forced to change careers by 2030.
Beyond cost pressure, executives are straight-up preparing to replace you with robots. Goldman Sachs thinks 6% to 7% of U.S. jobs are getting automated away in the next decade - and spoiler alert, tech companies are first in line for the chopping block.
Oracle's "efficiency" layoffs hit customer support hardest. Getting help with Database 19c licensing audits or mysterious Oracle Cloud Infrastructure billing has become a nightmare. Their AI chatbots replaced actual humans who understood the difference between Named User Plus and Processor licenses.
TheLayoff.com discussions and Oracle licensing expert forums are full of DBAs dealing with Oracle licensing audits that balloon into six-figure bills. One thread from August 2025 details a company facing $750K in unexpected licensing costs after Oracle claimed their VMware deployment multiplied their license requirements by 8x - a common Oracle audit tactic that used to get resolved with a knowledgeable support engineer. Now you get "Oracle Assistant" chatbot responses suggesting you "restart the database" for compliance issues.
The timing isn't coincidence - it's strategy. TechCrunch's layoffs tracker shows over 22,000 workers got axed this year, with Business Insider reporting companies like CNN, Dropbox, and Block specifically citing AI as the reason. Layoffs.fyi tracker puts it at 143,042 people impacted by 512 layoffs - that's 559 people losing their jobs every fucking day.
They're firing people while the money's good so they can claim it's "strategic optimization" instead of admitting they're broke. Plus, better severance packages keep the lawsuits away.