Oracle customers have been warned to watch for changes in support and pricing as Larry Ellison’s company makes huge datacenter spending commitments to support its AI ambitions.

Advisors in Oracle negotiations said support levels are declining, while costs might increase as discounts disappear. Others have warned of a tougher approach to contract negotiations.

Oracle is aggressively expanding AI datacenter capacity to serve demand tied to customers and partners including OpenAI, xAI, Meta, Nvidia, and AMD. The deal for OpenAI alone is set to be worth about $300 billion over five years.

Widespread reports of layoffs affecting thousands of staff came as investor concerns grew over how Oracle would finance its AI datacenter build-out, while borrowing heavily to support the expansion.

In March, Oracle increased the estimated cost of its fiscal 2026 restructuring plan by $500 million, taking the total to as much as $2.1 billion, as observers anticipated broader job cuts.

Oracle previously raised $18 billion in debt and has since outlined plans to raise far more, as it funds datacenter investments aimed at meeting surging demand from AI model builders and enterprise customers. Ratings agency Moody’s warned of further borrowing and negative free cash flow as Oracle ramps up its AI infrastructure investment.

Nick Walter, CTO of professional consulting at commercial advisory firm House of Brick Technologies, said that there were plenty of anecdotal reports that Oracle support outcomes are getting worse, meaning slower service, less skilled help, and “more Oracle Support responses that were obviously written by AI.”

House of Brick had also seen a recent surge in customers asking for help in reducing Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) usage or help in negotiation with Oracle over long-term OCI deals, he said. “Many customers who adopted OCI in the last three to five years are suddenly finding out that their renewals are much more expensive because Oracle has eliminated or reduced enterprise discounts, and they are being forced close to public listed pay-as-you-go prices.”

Customers were also seeking help in response to pressure on Java, with audits and sales pushes and “scary-sounding threats.”

“This is not a new phenomenon but pressure continues and Java is the main front in Oracle’s war against their customer’s pocketbook,” he said.

Craig Guarente, founder and CEO of Palisade Compliance, said that Oracle was no longer simply putting pressure on customers to license Java; it was conducting official audits. “We’ve definitely seen in the last few months a return to classic Oracle auditing practices,” he said.

In 2023, Oracle changed its Java SE subscription model, shifting from a per-user or per-processor basis to per-employee. Critics called the move “predatory” as organisations that were using little Java but had a large number of employees could be hit hard by the cost increase. Later that year, research from Gartner showed that costs could be between two and five times greater under the new licensing model for using the same software.

Guarente also warned of price hikes at OCI contract renewal. “If you’re not adequately protected, then we’re getting 9 percent or 10 percent for long term lock in. It all goes back to that original purchase. You had some flexibility in there if you were thoughtful in how you negotiated those contracts. But if you signed the local standard agreement, there’s no price protection.”

Eric Guyer, founder of Oracle advisory and consulting firm Advizant, pointed out in a social media post that the margins in software support were much higher than in datacenters.

“This means the value to Oracle of your software support payments is increasing, desperately so, whereas the value to you is diminishing, and at an increasing rate. I mean this both technically via waning innovation and the more than 8 percent annual inflationary adjustments,” he said.

Customers are also concerned about the long-term impact of the job losses on their relationship with Oracle, Guyer said.

“The trend in license negotiations is only indirectly related to Oracle’s shift for now. The layoffs mean companies have lost one or more of their sales contacts. But for apps or the more strategic long-standing relationships, this means customers are wondering what this loss of institutional knowledge will mean for them. I’m not hearing customers wonder if Oracle is de-prioritising its legacy software business just yet, although I see this as an obvious outcome,” he said.