More than 6,000 technology jobs were cut in the first 10 days of September, with companies including Uber, PayPal, Apple, Zomato and Oracle among those linked to workforce reductions.
The latest cuts add to an already large wave of layoffs this year. Data from tracking platform Layoffs.fyi showed that 128,536 technology employees across 299 companies were laid off globally by September 10.
That is higher than the 122,606 layoffs across 278 companies recorded during all of 2025, showing that job losses in the technology sector have already surpassed last year's total.
The cuts are also coming from some of the world's largest technology companies. Oracle, Amazon, Dell, Meta, Microsoft and PayPal are among the companies with the highest number of reported layoffs this year.
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Oracle, Amazon lead 2026 tech layoffs
Oracle has recorded the highest number of layoffs among technology companies tracked by Layoffs.fyi this year, with 21,000 employees affected. Amazon follows with 17,267 layoffs, while Dell has reported 11,000 job cuts. Meta comes next with 10,400, followed by Microsoft with 4,800 and PayPal with 4,760.Oracle's cuts were announced in June and amounted to about 13 per cent of its workforce. The company is simultaneously increasing spending on cloud infrastructure and AI as demand for computing capacity rises.
Dell announced its 11,000-job reduction in March, while Meta has carried out several rounds of cuts, including an 8,000-job reduction in May.
The scale of these reductions shows that the current layoff wave is not limited to startups or smaller technology companies. Some of the world's biggest firms are also reviewing their workforce requirements even as they invest heavily in new technologies.
The latest wave gathered pace in September, with more than 6,300 tech jobs eliminated in the first 10 days of the month. Uber accounted for the biggest announced reduction, with the ride-hailing company planning to eliminate about 3,300 corporate positions, or roughly 10 per cent of its workforce.
Uber said the move would reduce management layers, consolidate teams and speed up decision-making. The restructuring is not being presented as an AI-driven job cut. Instead, the company is reorganising its corporate operations while facing the need to invest heavily in autonomous driving and compete in the emerging robotaxi market.
PayPal cuts jobs in India
PayPal has also reduced its workforce as part of its global restructuring. The company has cut 4,760 jobs in 2026, according to Layoffs.fyi, making it the sixth-largest company by reported layoffs this year.In India, the company cut 220 jobs, or about 4 per cent of its India workforce, as part of the payments firm's broader, multi-year turnaround plan laid out earlier this year.
PayPal has described the workforce reduction as part of a previously announced transformation aimed at simplifying its global operations and improving efficiency.
It aims to cut costs by $400 million by the end of the year, with total savings targeted at at least $1.5 billion over the next two to three years. The India cuts came shortly after Oracle also announced major workforce reductions, making the country part of the latest global restructuring cycle.
Apple also reorganises teams
Apple cut more than 200 jobs in August across its Siri, Vision Pro and software teams, according to Bloomberg. About 100 roles were eliminated in the Vision Pro unit, while another 100 came from Siri and AI-related software teams.Apple said the changes were aimed at realigning teams and creating new roles. The Vision Pro unit has reduced gaming and immersive video work, while Siri is being rebuilt around a new AI system requiring different expertise.
Uber to cut 10% of jobs
Uber Technologies is set to cut about 3,300 jobs, or 10 per cent of its global workforce, as part of a restructuring to reduce management layers and shift spending toward its ride-hailing, delivery and robotaxi businesses, Bloomberg reported.CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said the company's rapid growth had led to additional management layers and fragmented responsibilities. The restructuring will cut Uber's management ranks by 20 per cent, with some managers moving to individual contributor roles. The company did not specify how many managers would be laid off.
AI is part of the story, but not the whole story
The growing use of AI is reshaping hiring and workforce planning, but experts say it is not the only reason behind the latest tech layoffs.Chetan Mangalwedhe, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) at hiring platform TalentiFi-X, told Business Standard that AI is increasingly cited as a reason for layoffs, but the current cuts have multiple drivers. Oracle has come closest to directly linking its workforce reduction to the adoption of AI across operations, he said.
"For most other large programmes, the reasons are mixed, including post-pandemic over-hiring and organisational redesign," Mangalwedhe said.
He added, "Roughly a quarter to a third of this wave represents genuine task replacement through AI and automation. The rest is largely cost reset and workforce restructuring. "
Junior development, first-line support, routine analysis and coordination roles face the most pressure, while specialised engineering, infrastructure, security and product roles are being redesigned rather than eliminated, he said.
Why are tech companies cutting jobs?
Mangalwedhe said technology spending has shifted towards AI infrastructure, data centres and specialised computing. Companies can therefore reduce headcount while continuing to invest heavily in these areas.Another factor, he said, is the correction of the 2021–22 hiring surge, when companies expanded rapidly amid strong demand and cheap capital. Companies are also flattening structures and reducing layers of coordination. This means layoffs can happen even when revenues continue to grow, as businesses become leaner and more specialised.
In India, this could mean slower campus hiring and less reliance on the traditional workforce pyramid, with clients increasingly seeking smaller teams that can deliver more using AI-enabled tools, Mangalwedhe said.
The shift in spending towards AI is also reflected in the sharp rise in capital expenditure among major technology companies. Sarbojit Mallick, co-founder at recruitment platform Instahyre, told Business Standard that Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft and Meta are expected to spend about $725 billion on total capital expenditure in 2026, up 77 per cent from around $410 billion in 2025, with AI infrastructure driving a large share of the investment.
He said Oracle's potential $8-10 billion annual savings from workforce cuts is an analyst estimate, not an Oracle figure. However, companies are simultaneously increasing capital investment and slowing workforce growth, he said.
Temporary correction or permanent shift?
Mangalwedhe said, "Some of the job losses will eventually come back, but the workforce structure of 2021 is unlikely to return".He said the more permanent changes could include fewer generalists, thinner middle-management layers, more selective junior hiring and greater focus on productivity. Global capability centres (GCCs) and Indian IT services can continue to grow, but the traditional model of large numbers of junior employees working under a smaller number of seniors is likely to remain under pressure.
Some rehiring is likely when "aggressive cuts affect quality, risk or client delivery", Mangalwedhe said.
Mallick said Stanford's 2026 AI Index shows employment among software developers aged 22–25 has fallen nearly 20 per cent since 2024, with younger workers and AI-exposed roles most affected.
Gartner found that 22 per cent of CHROs said at least one business leader had stopped hiring entry-level workers because of AI automation, he said. These trends could point to a more structural shift, with thinner entry-level pipelines, more selective hiring and greater investment in AI infrastructure, he added.
