GrandTheftUrkel13h ago
Kevin Beaumont

Oracle have laid off 30k employees today. They did it to personal email accounts at 6am ๐Ÿซก saying they needed the money to spend on GenAI instead. https://thenextweb.com/news/oracle-layoffs-march-2026

Oracleโ€™s share price since they went GenAI nuts:

3:20pmWeb
Show threadThe Penguin of Evil16h ago
@GossiTheDog DROP EMPLOYEES ALL;
Show threadyour auntifa liza ๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡ท ๐Ÿฆ› ๐Ÿฆฆ15h ago
@etchedpixels @GossiTheDog the truly underrated joke
Show threadcR0w ๐Ÿดโ€โ˜ ๏ธ๐Ÿซˆ๐Ÿซ16h ago
@GossiTheDog Look who's finding the fuck out. LMFAO.   
Show threadB05H16h ago
@cR0w @GossiTheDog
Show threadRob O 16h ago

@cR0w @GossiTheDog That, more than anything else, explains the layoffs.

There's only like 3 levers for companies to pull at the moment to really juice stock price. Layoffs, AI (which implies future layoffs), and stock buybacks. Odds that they use the money saved from these layoffs for buybacks in, say, a year?

Show threadTaggart16h ago
@nerdpr0f @cR0w @GossiTheDog Daddy Ellison may have to use the cash to back up David's misadventure with Warner
Show threadThe Doctor12h ago
@mttaggart @nerdpr0f @cR0w @GossiTheDog I don't think it's a misadventure. It's working quite nicely in their favor.
Show threadTaggart12h ago
@drwho @nerdpr0f @cR0w @GossiTheDog Warner has historically been a toxic asset, and David's ideas for making it more valuable are deranged.
Show threadThe Doctor12h ago

@mttaggart @nerdpr0f @cR0w @GossiTheDog WB owns an amazing amount of stuff, yeah. But some of it tanking would definitely be in their best interests long term: Discovery Channel, Science Channel, CNN, WB International, World Heritage Channel

Uninformed, under educated people are a valuable political resource.

Show threadThe Doctor12h ago

@mttaggart @nerdpr0f @cR0w @GossiTheDog And that's not getting into the stuff the Ellison clan owns directly.

The rest can be used for large scale social engineering (in the sense of engineering social structures toward a particular end).

Show threadTaggart12h ago

@drwho @nerdpr0f @cR0w @GossiTheDog My sense is CNN is the reason for the purchase; the rest is fluff. But it still has to make money to account for the bananas investment, or Larry is footing the bill.

And uh, CBS does not bode well for that prospect.

Show threadMike Roach12h ago
@mttaggart @drwho @nerdpr0f @cR0w @GossiTheDog Itโ€™s like when Oracle bought Sun just so they could own Java and patent troll Google and everyone that used it. Oracle and the Ellisons are parasites.
Show threadThe Doctor11h ago
@mroach @mttaggart @nerdpr0f @cR0w @GossiTheDog Exactly!
Show threadThe Doctor11h ago
@mttaggart @nerdpr0f @cR0w @GossiTheDog That was my assessment as well. There are plenty of fringe benefits, CNN aside. Plus, the other properties would be ideal for maneuvering debt onto and scuttling. For the tax breaks if nothing else.
Show thread๐‚๐€‘๐€๐5h ago
@mttaggart @drwho @nerdpr0f @cR0w @GossiTheDog if it was about CNN, why not just let Netflix do its offer? Netflix didn't want CNN, the cable portfolio would have been on sale for pennies or less on the Netflix deal's dollar and available for sale. I think he KNEW AI was a bad bet he had overextended himself on, leveraged, on either sides of in terms of the downside risk, and truly wants the whole media and IP portfolio on the premise it will keep its value when AI blows up on him
Show threadcR0w ๐Ÿดโ€โ˜ ๏ธ๐Ÿซˆ๐Ÿซ16h ago
@nerdpr0f @GossiTheDog I would expect them to begin sooner than that. At least by individuals if not the org itself.
Show threadfedops ๐Ÿ’™๐Ÿ’›14h ago
@nerdpr0f looks like they may need it to cover increased lending costs because the banks fear they won't get their money back.
@cR0w @GossiTheDog
Show threadThe Doctor12h ago
@nerdpr0f @cR0w @GossiTheDog Sounds about right.
Show threadlemgandi16h ago

@GossiTheDog

Also check coreweave ("CRWV") These guys were originally bitcoin miners who 'pivoted' to building AI data centers. So their price is an advance notifier of AI investment.

Show threadJoonq16h ago
@GossiTheDog People are running their companies and their company reputations into ground for AI! Im actually starting to be pretty conspiratorial about this is it a cult? Do these ceos get personal bribes for this? Is it some kind of a humilation ritual? ๐Ÿ˜‚
Show threadSzabรณ Em, Enigma He-Art Director 15h ago
@joonq @GossiTheDog stock buybacks and liquidations. This is billionaire gets more money 101. It's just "ai" instead of housing this time around.
Show threadZimmie15h ago
@joonq @GossiTheDog There was a thread recently explaining it as a capital strike:
https://hachyderm.io/@jenniferplusplus/116127090589590254
Jenniferplusplus (@[email protected])

That's part of what makes a capital strike non-obvious, if you don't already know what it looks like. It's not just sitting on the money and refusing to spend it. Because that's the one thing you literally can't do with capital. If you leave those resources idle, especially labor, it just goes and does its own thing. You lose control over it. If you just fire everyone, they eventually start working for themselves. So, to conduct a capital strike, you have to direct the capital toward useless things. Or actually destructive things, if you can manage it. And thus, AI had "basically zero" effect on the GDP. Because it's economically worthless activity for the purpose of keeping all the resources occupied so they can't be put to any other use.

Hachyderm.io
Show threadsilhouette   16h ago
@GossiTheDog can't wait for that company to die
Show threadNicole Parsons15h ago

@silhouette @GossiTheDog

#FFFO
Fund a Fascist & Find Out.

https://slate.com/technology/2026/03/iran-ai-cbs-oracle-larry-ellison-paramount-warner-bros-trump.html

Larry Ellison & the CIA
https://www.businessinsider.com/the-cia-made-larry-ellison-a-billionaire-2014-9

https://gizmodo.com/larry-ellisons-oracle-started-as-a-cia-project-1636592238

Larry Ellison & Project 2025
https://www.sfchronicle.com/tech/article/project-2025-oracle-19654875.php

Larry Ellison & Jan 6 sedition
https://www.status.news/p/larry-ellison-2020-election-cbs-news-january-6

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/20/larry-ellison-oracle-trump-election-challenges/

Larry Ellison & AI state surveillance
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2024/09/omnipresent-ai-cameras-will-ensure-good-behavior-says-larry-ellison/

https://fortune.com/2024/09/17/oracle-larry-ellison-surveillance-state-police-ai/

Larry Ellison & the theft of private data

https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/16/oracle_vectorizes_its_customers/

https://www.techradar.com/pro/oracle-cto-wants-to-put-all-americas-data-into-one-big-system-to-study-including-dna

1/

The Most Powerful Tech Oligarch in America May Be Losing His Grip

With Trumpโ€™s help, he built a media empire. Now comes the hard part.

Slate
Show threadNicole Parsons15h ago

2/

Larry Ellison & the enshittification of social media
https://www.theverge.com/2022/5/5/23058295/elon-musk-twitter-funding-qatar-larry-ellison

Larry Ellison & one-party media monopolies
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/18/opinion/larry-ellison-paramount-cbs-tiktok.html

https://nonprofitquarterly.org/the-ellisons-empire-media-consolidation-narrative-control-and-the-threat-to-democracy/

Larry Ellison & circular financing fraud
https://www.trendingtopics.eu/billion-dollar-shuffle-openai-nvidia-oracle/

Larry Ellison & fossil fuel funded fascism
https://www.businessinsider.com/paramount-wbd-saudi-arabia-qatar-abu-dhabi-elllison-hostile-billions-2025-12

https://thedreydossier.substack.com/p/the-merger-that-needed-a-war

https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/how-saudi-arabia-shaped-silicon-valley/id1451109634?i=1000757358905

Larry Ellison & the new version of the Russian Internet Research Agency for election meddling
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/foreign-campaign-intervention-may-go-way-beyond-russia-to-china-iran-north-korea-and-saudi-arabia/

Elon Musk got $1 billion from Larry Ellison for his Twitter takeover

Elon Musk told the SEC he has lined up over $7 billion in funding to support his Twitter purchase. Key names include Larry Ellison, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, Andreessen Horowitz, Binance, and the state investment firm of Qatar.

The Verge
Show threadNicole Parsons15h ago

3/

Larry Ellison & outsourcing American jobs to despots

https://www.intelligentcio.com/me/2023/12/15/oracle-will-train-50000-saudi-nationals-in-artificial-intelligence-and-other-latest-digital-technologies/

https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/us-saudi-deals-expected-defense-nuclear-energy-ai-senior-us-administration-2025-11-18/

https://today.lorientlejour.com/article/1487826/shehadi-defends-deal-with-oracle-to-train-50000-lebanese-in-ai.html

https://www.oracle.com/middleeast/news/announcement/oracle-collaborates-with-saudi-arabia-ministry-communications-it-national-elearning-center-2025-04-16/

Larry Ellison & public corruption
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-15/netanyahu-turns-to-rich-friend-to-fund-corruption-trial-fees

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2019-12-02/adelsons-oracle-founder-potential-witness-netanyahu-trial

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/trump-administration-sued-us-tiktok-deal-rcna261684

https://www.mediamatters.org/cnn/trump-escalates-his-corrupt-campaign-gift-cnn-ellisons

https://europeanconservative.com/articles/news-corner/tony-blair-larry-ellison-lobbying-corruption-national-id-cards-uk/

Larry Ellison & Gaza
https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-on-vacation-at-island-owned-by-larry-ellison-a-witness-in-graft-trial/

https://gen.medium.com/this-week-in-trumpland-corruption-oracle-predicts-a-payday-44cdc3aabdc8

Larry Ellison & Wall Street frauds

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theranos

https://www.rgrdlaw.com/news-item-Illicit-Manipulation-Trial-Challenging-Oracles-9-Billion-Acquisition-of-NetSuite-Begins-in-Delaware.html

https://www.theregister.com/2011/08/31/oracle_africa/

Oracle will train 50,000 Saudi nationals in Artificial Intelligence and other latest digital technologies โ€“ Intelligent CIO Middle East

Show threadDavid Chisnall (*Now with 50% more sarcasm!*)16h ago

@GossiTheDog

I have told this story here before, but:

I gave a talk at Oracle around 2018 or so, to a largely empty room. The floor I was visiting was completely empty. They had just had a quarterly project review with Ellison and he'd said that there was no market for the thing they were building and fired them all.

The thing they were building? A high-performance accelerator for multiplying matrixes together.

Larry Ellison, just as Google / Deep Mind were announcing their TPU publicly, and as the bubble was starting to kick off in earnest, decided that there was no commercial market for high-performance matrix multiplication.

Show threadRootWyrm ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ฆ16h ago

@david_chisnall @GossiTheDog I mean, this is the same Larry Ellison that bought a Sun Microsystems already in terminal decline right as they were discovering that Rock wasn't *just* a fabrication problem they were incapable of solving, but also a demonstration of SPARC's architectural dead-end.

So yeah. Sounds about right.

Show threadTor Iver Wilhelmsen15h ago
@rootwyrm @david_chisnall @GossiTheDog And who said early on that the cloud was a passing fad. Before he had to pivot into their far behind everyone else offering.
Show threadDavid ๐Ÿ–‹๏ธ15h ago
@david_chisnall @GossiTheDog Larry Ellison is the Jim Cramer of technology trends.
Show threadPaul Chambers๐Ÿšง16h ago
@GossiTheDog At least they have CBS and CNN to give this a good spin...
Show threadluca16h ago
@GossiTheDog I'm really sorry for all the laid off workers, it should be payed only from the pockets of the rotten brain chairman and his fellows.
Show threadNetraven16h ago
@GossiTheDog everyone learned from musk. It's more profitable to tank a company than run it to last.
Show thread2xfo14h ago

@Netraven @GossiTheDog
I once played a table-top game about trains in the robber-barron age of US rail that was really interesting. The point was to embezzle company funds into your pocket, and that usually involves making terrible decisions for the company.

I wish i could remember what that game was called now

Show threadTude6h ago

@RnDanger That sounds like 1830: Railways and Robber Barons (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/421).
Thereโ€™s a whole series of these types of train games, called 18xx because most of them are named after the year theyโ€™re based on.

@Netraven @GossiTheDog

1830: Railways & Robber Barons

A classic game of managing railroads and investing wisely.

BoardGameGeek
Show thread2xfo6h ago
@tude @Netraven @GossiTheDog
I think that's very likely it, thank you
Show threadEric Lawton16h ago

@GossiTheDog

When they choose that name, they probably didn't imagine that someday they would be using an actual, electronic oracle.

Famous for causing disasters for those taking their prophecies at face value.

@bonaventuresoft

Show threadsludgefossil15h ago
@GossiTheDog
Rest In Piss Oracle
Show threadSYNTAX_ERROR15h ago
@GossiTheDog I'm surprised they didn't mention the mountain of debt the company is under. /s
Show threadVysogota8h ago
@BustaMarx oh just you wait until the us taxpayer pays again because oracle and the banks that lent the money to it are too big to fail lmao @GossiTheDog
Show threadKnud Jahnke15h ago

@GossiTheDog

All the "all in on AI" companies are at -10% to -30% since beginning of the year.

One should think they might learn.

Show threadLenora15h ago
@GossiTheDog destroying your brand is so on point
Show threadRandall Lee15h ago
@GossiTheDog When you are in a hole you must keep digging
Show threadKnud Jahnke15h ago

@GossiTheDog

Also Ellison needs the money to bring the remaining US media under Trump's control.

Show threadJoe โŒ๐Ÿ‘‘14h ago
@knud @GossiTheDog But the Ellisons borrowed so much to make all of their media acquisitions that they will need to do massive cutbacks and layoffs to deal with the debts.
Show threadKnud Jahnke11h ago

@not2b @GossiTheDog

That's what I mean.

Show threadFenix15h ago
@GossiTheDog I would urge the Oracle customers to look for another supplier.
Show threadstonedonkey ๐Ÿ•น๏ธ๐ŸŽฎ๐Ÿ‘พ15h ago
@GossiTheDog keep squeezing that stone there's bound to be more blood in it!
Show threadCount Holdem15h ago
@GossiTheDog #BoycottAI
Show threadArchiveScribe15h ago
@GossiTheDog This is exactly why we need a national ban on AI worker replacement in this country.
Show threadTofu Golem15h ago

@GossiTheDog
Oh good, they are betting the farm on the bubble just as it is starting to pop.

Good.

Show threadMatt Hall15h ago

@GossiTheDog

Good. I hope Ellison is poorly diversified and we're burning his equity like he's burning the planet.

Billionaires: Gotta eat 'em all.

Show threadForrestGrump15h ago
@GossiTheDog 30k! Did. you say 30k?
Show threadWenzel Massag15h ago
@GossiTheDog AI is usually just the scapegoat for companies who realise they over hired and need a reason to give when laying off large numbers of staff.
Show threadLes Lore14h ago

@GossiTheDog

Or A Cull

Show threadHot Dog Water, will not comply14h ago

@GossiTheDog

Drug addicts, all.
Hopefully none of the folks they fired were as addicted as their boss and can detox alright now that they're safe.

Larry is a junkie of the first order.

Show threadJoe โŒ๐Ÿ‘‘14h ago
@GossiTheDog No, it isn't because they need the money to spend on GenAI instead. It's because they are in financial difficulty because of all of their borrowing and spending, and they need to cut back to compensate. Lots of companies are pretending that they are laying off because they are replacing people with AI. But mainly it's because they aren't doing well, the bubble is popping, so they will try to right the ship by making fewer people do the work.