Meta cuts ~700, Manus deal frozen
Meta initiated its largest round of recent layoffs—about 700 jobs—as it redirects spending to AI while rewarding top executives with aggressive stock options. The company’s $2 billion acquisition of agentic AI startup Manus is under review after Chinese authorities barred Manus’s founders from leaving the country, injecting uncertainty into Meta’s AI push. (Meta cuts about 700 jobs as it shifts spending to AI, Meta Lays Off 700 Employees, While Rewarding Top Executives, China Bars Manus Founders From Leaving as Meta’s $2 Billion Deal Reviewed)
SEC filings reviewed this week show restricted stock units and multi‑tranche stock options were granted to CFO Susan Li, CTO Andrew Bosworth, Chief Product Officer Chris Cox and COO Javier Olivan, according to reporting based on those filings. (reuters.com) (uk.finance.yahoo.com) The option exercise prices span from $1,116.08 for the first tranche up to $3,727.12 for the final tranche, with the lowest trigger equal to roughly an 88% rise from recent closing levels and the top tranche implying a market capitalization north of $9 trillion. (cnbc.com) Internal and reporting sources say the newest round of role eliminations hit teams across Reality Labs, Facebook/social‑media product groups, recruiting, sales and global operations, mirroring LinkedIn posts from affected employees. (foxbusiness.com) Meta’s workforce baseline stood at roughly 79,000 employees on Dec. 31, 2025, making the latest targeted reductions a small fraction of the company’s total headcount but concentrated in product and hardware groups. (foxbusiness.com) The Reality Labs unit previously cut more than 1,000 jobs in mid‑January 2026—about 10% of that division—and closed several internal game studios including Sanzaru and Armature as the company shifted investment toward AI‑enabled hardware and phone features. (bloomberg.com) Company filings and market reporting put Meta’s planned capital expenditure for 2026 in the triple‑digit billions, with several outlets citing guidance or analyst estimates toward $115–$135 billion to build datacenters and train large models. (cnbc.com) Financial Times and Bloomberg reporting name Manus’s chief executive Xiao Hong and chief scientist Ji Yichao as the two co‑founders summoned this month to a Beijing meeting with the National Development and Reform Commission and then told they could not leave China while regulators review Meta’s 2025 acquisition, which has been reported at roughly $2 billion (some outlets have cited as much as $2.5 billion). (ft.com 1) (ft.com 2)
