The Office of Personnel Management awarded Oracle $ORCL a nearly $400 million, 10-year contract on Wednesday to build and operate a single cloud-based human resources platform for the entire U.S. federal government.
The 10-year deal will replace more than 100 separate agency HR systems with a single cloud-based platform serving roughly 2 million federal employees
Bloomberg / Getty Images
The Office of Personnel Management awarded Oracle $ORCL a nearly $400 million, 10-year contract on Wednesday to build and operate a single cloud-based human resources platform for the entire U.S. federal government.
At present, federal agencies collectively rely on 119 distinct HR software systems — many of which OPM describes as outdated, duplicative, and prone to personnel processing errors that drive up costs. Serving roughly two million civilian employees across the U.S. Executive Branch, the new system will centralize functions ranging from payroll and benefits administration to employee performance management, according to OPM.
"Historically, federal agencies have relied on fragmented, aging HR systems that are costly to maintain and difficult to scale," OPM Director Scott Kupor said in a statement. "This award represents a foundational investment in the future of federal workforce management."
According to OPM, bringing all agencies onto a single platform could cut what the government spends on HR technology by more than 90%. The final contract value will depend on the complexity of migrating employee data and security requirements, according to Reuters.
Workday $WDAY was the losing bidder, and Federal News Network reports the company has a 10-day window after receiving its contract debrief to mount a legal challenge. Getting to this award was not straightforward: as FedScoop has reported, OPM originally handed Workday a sole-source deal in May 2025 — arguing no other vendor was qualified — before abruptly canceling it and inviting competing bids. Two tech companies eliminated before the final round filed bid protests that pushed the contract decision well past the January 2026 deadline OPM had originally set.
Agencies in the first deployment group are slated to come online sometime in early fiscal 2027, though Federal News Network notes that the broader rollout has slipped at least six months from a July 2027 goal the administration had previously announced. Before making its selection, OPM conducted a vetting process that included direct product testing, market research, and live vendor demonstrations, the agency said.
Larry Ellison, who chairs Oracle's board, has long backed President Trump politically and holds a seat on the president's science and technology council. Wednesday's award advances an agenda OPM announced last year under the banner of "Federal HR 2.0," the administration's push to overhaul how the government manages its workforce.
The contract award comes as Oracle has been posting strong cloud revenue growth and announcing major AI infrastructure investments, with cloud infrastructure revenue rising 93% in its most recent quarter and the company planning roughly $70 billion in capital expenditures in fiscal 2027.
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