One of the first signs of a company’s financial crisis was layoffs. At the first signs of a lack of solvency, companies contracted to cut costs and devote more resources to investing in improving productivity and improving their earnings.
This formula is no longer wrong, at least in the technology sector, where large corporations lay off a good portion of their workforce, and they do so with a full cash box and an overflowing investment agenda. So far in 2026, the number of layoffs at the beginning of the third quarter has already exceeded last year’s number, and it does so not in the context of the crisis, but rather record profits in the company’s accounts and a mad rush to invest in data centers for AI.
About 196,000 jobs in ten months. Tech sector employment monitors such as Trueup have recorded more than 197,000 tech layoffs so far this year. US consulting firm information only Challenger, Gray and Christmas They include the 165,925 layoffs already announced through September, 54% more than will be registered in 2025. With these figures, technology accounts for 29% of all cuts announced in the country, more than any other industry.
The data, however, clashed with the rest of the economy, where total layoff announcements in the US fell by 39%, although a good part of this decline was due to the public sector which, excluding government, fell by 15%. In this case, the technology goes against the current and furthermore, it rarely hires. The data indicates that its hiring plan so far this year totals 22,361, seven times less than the cut. With the numbers in hand, the diagnosis is clear: tech companies are laying off, but they’re not hiring new employees.
Oracle, Cisco and Intel hold the numbers. A good example of this new trend among technology companies is found in Oracle, which topped the list after the round of cuts Its annual report announced a workforce of 141,000 employees as of May 31, compared to 162,000 employees in 2025. There were 21,000 fewer, and a 17% increase over the previous year in terms of revenue, up to $67,357 million. The company itself admits that the adoption of AI “has caused and may cause workforce reductions.”
In May, Cisco reported record revenue of $15.8 billion. A few lines below and in the same statement on its corporate blog, it announced that it would lay off about 4,000 workers, about 5% of its workforce. Its financial director, Mark Patterson, justified this by assuring that “this is not really a restructuring motivated by savings.”
Record profits not covered by silicon bills. While it is true that the income balance of technology companies registers record figures, the savings in staff salaries can be invested in data centers like black holes of assets.
Big tech companies are gearing up to invest nearly $760 billion by 2026 Microsoft budgeted $41 billion in its last fiscal quarter alone and closed June with 223,000 employees, 5,000 fewer than in 2025. The company acknowledged this in its annual report: Investing in cloud and AI can reduce its costs and reduce its costs. That is, if your spending on chips increases, someone will have to reduce their budget in other areas. This week it opened a voluntary exit offer to about 60,000 workers, 27% of its workforce.
Wall Street applauds, but the story is dull. Stock indices reflect the incentive to continually cut. After the announcement of Cisco’s layoff plan, its shares rose nearly 20%. The labor column is the least preferred cost by investors, and it preserves reduced margins while increasing investment in chips.
Of course, the whole story of organizations firing to improve their structures to become more efficient with AI doesn’t always add up. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman admits that “there are some AI washing Where people blame AI for the layoffs they do anyway.” Challenger data narrows this factor to 120,136 layoff announcements that have been announced in the U.S. this year. It represents 21% of total layoffs and has already become the number one reason cited for layoffs in 2026.
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Picture | Unsplash (Miguel Angel Hernandez)
