Meta cuts 8,000 staff amid AI spend
- Meta told employees on April 23 it will cut about 8,000 jobs, or 10% of staff, starting May 20 as AI spending climbs. - The company is also canceling plans to fill 6,000 open roles while keeping 2026 capital spending guidance at $115 billion to $135 billion. - The cuts revive Meta’s “year of efficiency” playbook as spending shifts to data centers and chips. (investor.atmeta.com)
Meta plans to cut about 8,000 jobs, or 10% of its workforce, beginning May 20 as it pours more money into artificial intelligence. (cnbc.com) The company told employees on Thursday, April 23, that it will also stop hiring for roughly 6,000 open roles. Bloomberg first reported the cuts, and CNBC and CBS News said Meta confirmed them. (cnbc.com) (cbsnews.com) Meta’s latest annual report said it had 74,067 employees at the end of 2025, so a 10% reduction works out to roughly 7,400 people; news reports and internal guidance rounded that to about 8,000. (investor.fb.com) (cnbc.com) The backdrop is a much bigger capital-spending plan. Meta said in January it expects 2026 capital expenditures of $115 billion to $135 billion, up from $72.22 billion in 2025. (investor.atmeta.com) Chief financial officer Susan Li said that increase is being driven by investment in “Meta Superintelligence Labs efforts and core business,” which points to more spending on data centers, servers and related infrastructure. (investor.atmeta.com) (datacenterdynamics.com) That makes the layoffs less like a broad emergency retrenchment and more like a reallocation inside a profitable company. Meta reported $72.22 billion in 2025 capital expenditures and still told investors it expects 2026 operating income to top 2025. (investor.atmeta.com) The move also echoes Meta’s earlier cost-cutting cycle. In 2022 and 2023, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg labeled a restructuring push the company’s “year of efficiency” after earlier hiring expanded faster than revenue growth. (meta.com) (forbes.com) This time, the pressure point is artificial intelligence infrastructure. Across Big Tech, companies are spending heavily on chips and data centers while looking for savings in recruiting, middle layers and routine work that software can partly automate. (cnbc.com) (cbsnews.com) Meta has not framed the cuts as a retreat from growth. It is cutting jobs and open requisitions at the same time it keeps one of the largest capital budgets in the industry, signaling that 2026 spending will favor machines over headcount. (investor.atmeta.com) (cnbc.com) The immediate next date is May 20, when the layoffs are set to start. The broader test is whether Meta can turn a $115 billion-to-$135 billion AI buildout into faster growth before another round of cuts follows. (cnbc.com) (investor.atmeta.com)
