Meta cuts, AI pivot
Meta is laying off hundreds across sales, recruiting and Reality Labs as it reallocates toward a reported $135 billion AI and wearables pivot—management expects survivors to be far more productive with AI tools (siliconangle.com) (thehrdigest.com). IBM is also restructuring—making cuts while hiring purposefully for AI and entry‑level roles, signaling a shift from headcount growth to targeted, high‑skill recruitment (economictimes.indiatimes.com) (dataconomy.com).
Meta’s cuts this week total “several hundred” roles and will affect fewer than 1,000 employees, with some impacted staff being offered alternative roles or relocation options. (bloomberg.com) Meta told investors in its Jan. 29, 2026 earnings release that 2026 capital expenditures are expected to be $115 billion–$135 billion — the line item company documents say will fund its Meta Superintelligence Labs and AI infrastructure buildout. (investor.atmeta.com) Those infrastructure commitments include long‑term capacity buys and partnerships: Meta signed a multi‑year AI capacity agreement with Nebius worth up to $27 billion (about $12 billion of dedicated capacity starting in 2027), and in October 2025 formed a $27 billion joint venture with Blue Owl to develop the Hyperion data‑center campus. (bloomberg.com) (cnbc.com) Company filings show Meta granted stock options to several senior executives on March 24, 2026 — the first such awards since the 2012 IPO — with vesting tied to steep share‑price milestones that could pay out hundreds of millions if targets are met. (bloomberg.com) Management has been explicit that the capex push is paired with an “AI‑for‑work” drive: Mark Zuckerberg said 2026 will be the year AI “dramatically” changes how employees work, and Meta’s CTO has been tapped to roll out AI tools company‑wide to raise individual productivity and flatten teams. (axios.com) (pymnts.com) IBM’s parallel move combines a narrow round of cuts announced as a “low single‑digit percentage” of its roughly 270,000 workforce with targeted hiring for AI and entry‑level roles, while CEO Arvind Krishna previously estimated up to 30% of about 26,000 back‑office positions could be automated over five years. (cnbc.com) (bloomberg.com) Internal and market moves at both companies show capital being rerouted into compute and cloud capacity deals and executive retention incentives while headcount is reshaped toward AI‑centric engineering and operational roles. (bloomberg.com) (economictimes.indiatimes.com)
