Meta cuts 8,000 jobs for AI spend
- Meta told employees on April 23 it will cut about 8,000 jobs, or 10% of its workforce, starting May 20, while also canceling plans to fill roughly 6,000 open roles. - The cuts are tied to a sharper artificial intelligence spending push: Meta is preparing to spend $115 billion to $135 billion in 2026 on infrastructure and related hiring. - The move lands as Microsoft pursues buyouts and Wall Street watches whether huge AI budgets can lift revenue fast enough. (cnbc.com)
Meta is cutting about 8,000 jobs as it pours more money into artificial intelligence. (cnbc.com) The company told employees on Thursday, April 23, that the cuts equal about 10% of its workforce and will begin on May 20. Meta also scrapped plans to hire for roughly 6,000 open roles. (cnbc.com) (finance.yahoo.com) Reuters reported a week earlier that Meta was targeting May 20 for a first wave of layoffs, with additional cuts possible later in 2026. The report said the company was looking for savings as spending on data centers and AI systems climbed. (msn.com) Meta’s 2026 capital spending is expected to reach $115 billion to $135 billion, according to reports cited by investors and business outlets this week. That money goes to the computing backbone for AI: data centers, chips, networking gear, and the software needed to run large models. (finance.yahoo.com) (thenextweb.com) The job cuts also hit recruiting before people even got in the door. Canceling 6,000 open roles means Meta is shrinking future hiring at the same time it reduces current headcount. (cnbc.com) (siliconangle.com) Meta is not alone. Reuters said Microsoft was planning its first voluntary employee buyout program, and Bloomberg reported the Meta and Microsoft moves together could affect as many as 23,000 jobs. (money.usnews.com) (bloomberg.com) Investors have tolerated the spending so far because the biggest tech companies are racing to build AI capacity before rivals do. Yahoo Finance reported Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft are collectively expected to spend about $650 billion on capital expenditures in 2026. (finance.yahoo.com) The pressure now shifts to revenue. Reuters, citing a CNBC report, said Microsoft’s 365 Copilot had reached only slightly more than 3% of the 450 million users of Microsoft 365, a sign that adoption still trails the scale of spending. (money.usnews.com) For Meta employees, the date that matters is May 20. For the rest of tech, the question is whether cutting jobs and canceling openings becomes the standard way to fund the AI buildout. (cnbc.com) (finance.yahoo.com)
