Oracle fires 21,000 employees to fund AI spending

Oracle laid off approximately 21,000 employees (13% of its workforce) to fund a $300 billion computing deal with OpenAI as tech companies race to spend $600 billion on AI infrastructure in 2026. The company's credit downgrade to BBB- due to heavy AI spending and uncertain profitability now requires Oracle to provide over $7 billion in collateral to connect its Wisconsin data center to the power grid, jeopardizing the project's viability.