Nearly 130,000 tech jobs vanished in 2026 amid AI-driven restructuring

Tech’s 2026 layoff wave is already huge. Nearly 130,000 employees have been cut this year, according to the figures in the source, with Amazon, Meta, Oracle and others on the list. The pace has been especially sharp lately: more than 6,300 jobs vanished in just 10 days.

The latest cuts keep coming from different corners of the industry. PayPal trimmed 4% of its Indian workforce, or 220 jobs, across Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad. Uber said it will eliminate around 3,300 jobs, about 10% of its global workforce, in its biggest layoff round since the pandemic.

And it isn’t just those two. Zomato and Apple together cut close to 250 jobs, while Oracle is expected to run another round that could hit more than 7,000 to 8,000 employees worldwide. That’s a lot of churn for a sector that spent years talking about growth as if it were a law of nature.

The reason, companies say, is a mix of pressure and priorities. AI and automation are taking over repetitive and administrative work, while firms shift money toward AI, cloud computing and other automation efforts. Slower growth, weaker profitability, post-pandemic over-hiring and broader restructuring are all part of the same cleanup.

What stands out is how familiar this sounds. The pitch keeps being efficiency, but the result is people getting cut while companies chase the next productivity story. AI may be the new excuse, but the old habit is still the same: trim first, explain later.