Tech and finance layoffs: Oracle, Block, Morgan Stanley, Capital One headline brutal week for job losses

The past week has been a brutal one for many working in the tech and financial industries.

Thousands of jobs have been lost—or will be lost soon—from companies including Block, Morgan Stanley, Capital One, eBay, and, as reported today, software giant Oracle.

Here’s what you need to know about the layoffs.

Oracle to cut ‘thousands’ of jobs

The most recent news of layoffs came yesterday, after Bloomberg reported that the database software giant Oracle Corporation (NYSE: ORCL) is planning to cut “thousands” of jobs as soon as this month.

And yes, artificial intelligence is to blame—but not solely because AI is directly taking jobs.

Instead, Oracle is reportedly planning job cuts to free up cash for its AI data center expansion, which the company is pursuing to compete with cloud computing giants Amazon and Microsoft. However, Bloomberg’s report noted that some of the jobs lost will be jobs “that the company expects it will need less of due to AI.”

It is unknown exactly how many jobs will be lost, with Bloomberg noting that Oracle’s workforce reduction plans are “still active and could change.”

Fast Company has reached out to Oracle for comment. As of May 2025, Oracle has around 162,000 employees.

Capital One lays off over 1,100 workers

On the same day of the Oracle job cuts report, financial giant Capital One (NYSE: COF) said that it was laying off more than 1,100 employees, according to CBS News. But these layoffs have nothing to do with AI.

They follow Capital One’s acquisition of credit card giant Discover last year, which cost the company $50 billion. Shortly following that acquisition, 600 employees were laid off. Now, another 1,100 are expected to lose their jobs—primarily those who worked at the former Discover headquarters in Riverwoods, Illinois.

A Capital One spokesperson confirmed the layoffs to CBS News, stating, “As part of our continued journey to integrate Discover with Capital One, we announced the difficult decision to eliminate some Discover associate roles across the organization.”

Morgan Stanley eliminates 2,500 roles

A day before the Capital One layoffs were reported, the Wall Street Journal reported that investment banking giant Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) was laying off around 2,500 workers, or about 3% of its roughly 83,000-strong workforce.

The job cuts reportedly hit employees in three divisions: investment banking and trading, wealth management, and investment management, and are reportedly “tied to shifting business and location priorities,” according to the Journal, which cited anonymous sources.

Fast Company reached out to Morgan Stanley for comment.

Block layoffs decimated 4,000 jobs

The most significant round of layoffs, however, came from Jack Dorsey’s Block (NYSE: XYZ). Last Friday, the fintech company cofounded by one of Twitter’s original cofounders announced sweeping job cuts totaling 4,000 positions.

And Dorsey didn’t beat around the bush as to the reasons for the layoffs: AI.

As Fast Company previously reported, Dorsey said his Block workforce was shrinking from 10,000 employees to just 6,000 due to the company’s increasing use of “intelligence tools,” which have allowed it to function with a “significantly smaller team.”

“I don’t think we’re early to this realization. I think most companies are late,” Dorsey said in a memo published online. “Within the next year, I believe the majority of companies will reach the same conclusion and make similar structural changes. I’d rather get there honestly and on our own terms than be forced into it reactively.”

eBay cuts 800 jobs

The Block layoffs came just one day after legacy online shopping giant eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) announced it was cutting about 6% of its workforce, or around 800 jobs.

As Fast Company reported, the layoffs came about a week after eBay acquired the second-hand clothing app Depop from Etsy for $1.2 billion.

“We are taking steps to reinvest across our business and align our structure with our strategic priorities, which will affect certain roles across our workforce,” an eBay spokesperson told Fast Company. “We are grateful for the contributions of the employees impacted and are committed to supporting them with care and respect.”

Layoff announcements actually fell in February

If there’s a silver lining at all to this, it’s that total layoffs appear to have fallen in February by a significant amount, according to a report from the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

The firm said that U.S.-based layoff announcements plunged by 55% in February, to 48,307, versus the month before. However, that dramatic fall is only as sharp as it is because January saw over 108,000 layoff announcements.

For the month of February, the firm says the most jobs lost were in the technology sector, with about 11,000 jobs cut. Education came in second place, with around 5,400 jobs lost. Industrial Manufacturing came in third with about 4,100 jobs lost.

Yet Challenger, Gray & Christmas cautions that the decline in job cuts might not last. 

“February’s dip is a nice reprieve from the elevated job cut plans to start the year,” the firm’s chief revenue officer, Andy Challenger, noted. “With U.S. involvement in a growing war in Iran, the end of Q1 may bring more layoff plans as companies tighten belts amid uncertainty and higher costs.”