Oracle on Monday named Clay Magouyrk and Mike Sicilia as its new co-chief executives, replacing Safra Catz, who will shift into the role of executive vice chair of the board after more than a decade as top dog.

The leadership shake-up comes on the heels of mass layoffs, leaving many to question whether the company’s big bet on AI and cloud is coming at the expense of its own people.

Magouyrk, who joined Oracle from AWS in 2014, led the corporation’s second-generation cloud infrastructure program and is credited with much of the design and commercialization of OCI. Sicilia ran Oracle’s industry applications unit, overseeing software for sectors such as healthcare, banking, and retail, and pushing the use of intent-based application generation and embedded AI agents.

Together, the pair is expected to steer Oracle deeper into AI-powered cloud services, an area founder Larry Ellison insists is the ticket to long-term growth. The appointment follows Oracle reporting a $455 billion company-wide contract backlog after Q1 FY2026.

Oracle isn’t new to the dual-leadership model. Catz previously shared the role with Mark Hurd until he died in 2019 and she became the sole chief executive. Rival SAP also tried running with co-CEOs, but the experiment ended with Christian Klein eventually taking over as the company’s lone boss.

Ellison praised both Magouyrk and Sicilia as “proven leaders” who had already committed Oracle’s infrastructure and applications to the AI cause.

“Clay and Mike are building the cloud infrastructure and AI-enabled industry applications that will ensure Oracle’s bright future,” he said.

Catz’s new role will keep her close to the boardroom. Ellison called her “an extraordinary business leader” and stressed that she would continue to shape strategy even as she gives up day-to-day control.

Oracle also handed fresh responsibilities to two other insiders. Mark Hura, formerly head of North American sales, becomes president of global field operations, while long-time exec Doug Kehring takes over as principal financial officer.

The move comes just weeks after WARN filings revealed another round of Oracle job cuts, including more than 350 staff across California and Washington state, though sources told The Register the actual number could reach into the tens of thousands worldwide, with some estimates at 12,000. The company has said little publicly about the scale, but the layoffs have sparked anxiety across the business, particularly in developer teams.

One of the hardest-hit groups was Oracle’s MySQL unit, where around 70 people, including long-serving engineers, were shown the door. That prompted a rare outburst from Monty Widenius, one of MySQL’s creators, who described the cuts as “heartbroken” and warned they could threaten the long-term health of the open source project.

Whether the new bosses can deliver growth while managing the fallout from job cuts and open source backlash will determine if Oracle’s big bet pays off. For now, the company has doubled the size of the CEO’s office while slimming down in numerous other places. ®