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Oracle fires 21,000 employees to fund AI spending

79 points by DemiGuru 3mo ago

beardyw 3mo ago
AI companies want their customers to lay off people so that when they turn up the prices to "barely profitable" they will be forced to pay up.
danlitt 3mo ago
Just one more hit. Just one more hit. We're gonna make it this time. It's going to the moon....
dmix 3mo ago
AFAIK this article is not discussing new layoffs, this was previously discussed 3 months ago https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47587935 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47587935 The angle of the article is basically they did these layoffs and now also face some serious debt risks. Which was also obvious a few months ago. Oracle made a huge gamble, even more so than other big tech firms.
sciencesama 3mo ago
jpost posting is very interesting !
- krona 3mo ago
  Larry is big news in Jerusalem, what do you expect?
ecocentrik 3mo ago
This news is a month old.
ChrisArchitect 3mo ago
[dupe] Recent related: Oracle could face $7B collateral bill for Wisconsin data centre https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48993488 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48993488 S&P Global has lowered Oracle’s creditworthiness from BBB to BBB- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48909768 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48909768 And 3 months ago: Oracle slashes 30k jobs https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47587935 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47587935 (also this exact article yesterday with a bunch of upvotes and comments, but doesn't matter https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49025754 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49025754)
unaib 3mo ago
Very good timing for this contract with the Pentagon then,at just the right amount. https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/pentagon-awards-oracle-nearly-7-210414929.html https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/pentagon-awards-oracle-nea...
gordian-mind 3mo ago
Requiring $7 billion in collateral, nearly half the cost of the entire $15 billion project, to insure the utility’s full capital investment in case the company walks away, is completely insane. “Existing customers should not subsidize data centers” seems like pure demagogy there.
- qlte 3mo ago
  If the details in this article are correct, it’s because they need $7 billion dollars worth of power infrastructure built out for their 1GW datacenter, not an arbitrary punitive penalty. You seem convinced it has to be demagogy but that’s a significant amount of concentrated risk for the utility on a single project that could evaporate and leave them holding the bag, forcing rate increases for existing ratepayers. https://archive.md/voqjr https://archive.md/voqjr Local utility We Energies’ “very large customer” tariff requires any data centre developer with an S&P rating below single A minus to post collateral in the form of cash or a letter of credit. The size of the collateral is determined by the value of any power plants and transmission lines built to service the data centre.
  - TitaRusell 3mo ago
    These companies all need government funded infrastructure to profit from. Basically tax payer money. At least in a Cyberpunk world Arasaka has their own universities and power plants. We can't even have that.
    - gordian-mind 2mo ago
      You'll never guess what structure contributes most to "government funds": guess what, it starts with "com" and ends with "panies".
      - johnnyanmac 2mo ago
        I paid 9 thousand in taxes this year, does that give me the privilege to take out 80k in loans, no questions asked? That's pretty much what you're arguing. And that's not even a fair comparison. My loan wouldn't go towards something that ultimately raises everyone else's energy bills and become a noise pollution factor.
rickydroll 3mo ago
Am I the only one who sees the similarity between Larry Ellison and Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg? I mean, other than they're both evil and crazy. https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Emanuel_Zorg https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Emanuel_Zorg
krunck 3mo ago
https://archive.ph/tgNR3 https://archive.ph/tgNR3
jimnotgym 2mo ago
Is this the AI jobs apocalypse we heard about. People who made the business what it is today, being sacked so the company can join the bubble? When it bursts those people can go and sell expensive databases to governments agencies under a new umbrella.

79 points by DemiGuru 3mo ago

AI companies want their customers to lay off people so that when they turn up the prices to "barely profitable" they will be forced to pay up.

danlitt 3mo ago

Just one more hit. Just one more hit. We're gonna make it this time. It's going to the moon....

dmix 3mo ago

AFAIK this article is not discussing new layoffs, this was previously discussed 3 months ago https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47587935 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47587935 The angle of the article is basically they did these layoffs and now also face some serious debt risks. Which was also obvious a few months ago. Oracle made a huge gamble, even more so than other big tech firms.

sciencesama 3mo ago

jpost posting is very interesting !

krona 3mo ago
Larry is big news in Jerusalem, what do you expect?

ecocentrik 3mo ago

This news is a month old.

ChrisArchitect 3mo ago

[dupe] Recent related: Oracle could face $7B collateral bill for Wisconsin data centre https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48993488 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48993488 S&P Global has lowered Oracle’s creditworthiness from BBB to BBB- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48909768 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48909768 And 3 months ago: Oracle slashes 30k jobs https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47587935 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47587935 (also this exact article yesterday with a bunch of upvotes and comments, but doesn't matter https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49025754 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49025754)

unaib 3mo ago

Very good timing for this contract with the Pentagon then,at just the right amount. https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/pentagon-awards-oracle-nearly-7-210414929.html https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/pentagon-awards-oracle-nea...

gordian-mind 3mo ago

Requiring $7 billion in collateral, nearly half the cost of the entire $15 billion project, to insure the utility’s full capital investment in case the company walks away, is completely insane. “Existing customers should not subsidize data centers” seems like pure demagogy there.

qlte 3mo ago
If the details in this article are correct, it’s because they need $7 billion dollars worth of power infrastructure built out for their 1GW datacenter, not an arbitrary punitive penalty. You seem convinced it has to be demagogy but that’s a significant amount of concentrated risk for the utility on a single project that could evaporate and leave them holding the bag, forcing rate increases for existing ratepayers. https://archive.md/voqjr https://archive.md/voqjr Local utility We Energies’ “very large customer” tariff requires any data centre developer with an S&P rating below single A minus to post collateral in the form of cash or a letter of credit. The size of the collateral is determined by the value of any power plants and transmission lines built to service the data centre.
- TitaRusell 3mo ago
  These companies all need government funded infrastructure to profit from. Basically tax payer money. At least in a Cyberpunk world Arasaka has their own universities and power plants. We can't even have that.
  - gordian-mind 2mo ago
    You'll never guess what structure contributes most to "government funds": guess what, it starts with "com" and ends with "panies".
    - johnnyanmac 2mo ago
      I paid 9 thousand in taxes this year, does that give me the privilege to take out 80k in loans, no questions asked? That's pretty much what you're arguing. And that's not even a fair comparison. My loan wouldn't go towards something that ultimately raises everyone else's energy bills and become a noise pollution factor.

rickydroll 3mo ago

Am I the only one who sees the similarity between Larry Ellison and Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg? I mean, other than they're both evil and crazy. https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Emanuel_Zorg https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Emanuel_Zorg

krunck 3mo ago

https://archive.ph/tgNR3 https://archive.ph/tgNR3

jimnotgym 2mo ago

Is this the AI jobs apocalypse we heard about. People who made the business what it is today, being sacked so the company can join the bubble? When it bursts those people can go and sell expensive databases to governments agencies under a new umbrella.