Big Tech AI cuts

Meta and Microsoft are shrinking parts of their workforces as they pour more money into artificial intelligence. Meta said it will cut about 8,000 jobs, and Microsoft began its first broad buyout program. (apnews.com) (cnbc.com) Meta told staff on Thursday, April 23, that layoffs will begin May 20 and will affect roughly 10% of the company’s workforce. The memo also said Meta will stop hiring for 6,000 open roles it had planned to fill. (cnbc.com) (bloomberg.com) Microsoft’s program is narrower but still large. About 7% of its U.S. employees are eligible if their age plus years at the company add up to 70 or more, and workers in sales incentive plans are excluded. (cnbc.com) (techcrunch.com) The common thread is spending. Microsoft has been ramping up data-center investment to supply cloud customers running generative artificial intelligence models, and Meta tied its cuts to “other investments” in its employee memo. (cnbc.com) (finance.yahoo.com) That pressure is not limited to two companies. Yahoo Finance reported that Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft together are expected to spend about $650 billion on 2026 capital expenditures as they build data centers and develop artificial intelligence models. (finance.yahoo.com) Microsoft is also changing how it pays and evaluates people. The company told managers they will no longer have to tie stock awards directly to cash bonuses, and it reduced manager reward choices from nine options to five. (cnbc.com) Meta has been tightening internal performance systems at the same time. Recent reporting described stricter tracking, more frequent appraisal changes, and higher execution pressure as the company pushes teams to move faster on artificial intelligence priorities. (indiatoday.in) The scale is different at each company, but the direction is the same: fewer roles, tighter reviews, and more money moving into computing infrastructure. For workers, the next concrete date is May 20, when Meta says its layoffs begin. (cnbc.com)