Cost discipline is tightening in parallel. Oracle cut about 21,000 jobs over the past year, reducing headcount to 141,000 as of May 2026, and recorded $1.8 billion in restructuring and severance expenses. New layoffs are reportedly being prepared ahead of the fiscal second quarter starting September 1, with some teams facing double-digit percentage reductions. Revenue per employee jumped 35% to $478,000, a productivity gain that bulls cite as evidence of operating leverage.
Credit-rating pressure has followed the cash burn. S&P Global downgraded Oracle, citing the aggressive AI spending plan. The company's pivot toward a leveraged infrastructure model — long-lived assets funded by debt and potential equity dilution — marks a structural shift from its historical high-margin software profile.
Meanwhile, the billionaire leaderboard has reshuffled. Nvidia's Jensen Huang saw his fortune rise more than $30 billion since the end of 2025 as Nvidia shares gained 17%, moving him ahead of Ellison. Jeff Bezos added an estimated $29 billion in July on a 14% rise in Amazon shares, climbing to third. Elon Musk, still the world's richest, lost $363 billion in July after SpaceX shares declined, pulling his net worth from a brief trillion-dollar peak back to the high hundreds of billions.