"Meta will begin cutting approximately 8,000 jobs on 20 May, the largest single round of layoffs the company has undertaken since its 2023 restructuring, in a move that lays bare the scale of Mark Zuckerberg's bet that artificial intelligence infrastructure is worth more than the people it replaces. The company is also cancelling 6,000 open requisitions, bringing the effective headcount reduction to 14,000 positions."
"The cuts arrive not during a downturn but during a period of record financial performance. Meta reported first-quarter 2026 revenue of $56.31 billion and net income of $26.8 billion. Full-year 2025 revenue was $201 billion, up 22 per cent year over year, with free cash flow of $43.6 billion. The company is not shrinking because it is struggling. It is shrinking because it has decided that the return on AI infrastructure exceeds the return on human labour."
"Meta has raised its 2026 capital expenditure guidance to between $125 billion and $145 billion, up from $72.2 billion in 2025 and $39.2 billion in 2024. Nearly all of the increase is directed at data centres, Nvidia GPUs, custom silicon, and infrastructure to support the company's Llama model ecosystem and recommendation systems."
"In the first quarter alone, Meta added $107 billion in new contractual commitments for cloud and infrastructure deals, and it has committed $27 billion to a joint venture with Nebius for a gigawatt-scale AI data centre campus in Louisiana."
Meta will cut approximately 8,000 jobs on 20 May, its largest single layoff round since the 2023 restructuring, and will cancel 6,000 open requisitions, totaling about 14,000 positions reduced. The layoffs occur alongside record financial results, including first-quarter 2026 revenue of $56.31 billion and net income of $26.8 billion, with full-year 2025 revenue of $201 billion and free cash flow of $43.6 billion. Meta is increasing 2026 capital expenditure guidance to $125 billion to $145 billion, up from $72.2 billion in 2025 and $39.2 billion in 2024. Most of the increase targets data centers, Nvidia GPUs, custom silicon, and infrastructure supporting the Llama ecosystem and recommendation systems, including large cloud and infrastructure commitments and a gigawatt-scale data center campus joint venture in Louisiana.
Read at TNW | Artificial-Intelligence
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