Meta has announced plans to cut around 8,000 jobs, or roughly 10% of its workforce, as the company redirects massive financial resources toward artificial intelligence infrastructure. CEO Mark Zuckerberg told employees that rising compute demands are forcing Meta to prioritize AI hardware and data center expansion over staffing costs. The layoffs come alongside a sharp increase in the company’s capital expenditure forecast for 2026, now projected between $125 billion and $145 billion, reflecting the intense investment required to scale AI systems. Zuckerberg noted that Meta effectively manages two major cost areas—compute infrastructure and personnel—and that accelerating AI development is shifting that balance toward infrastructure spending. Despite strong financial performance, with revenue and profits rising significantly year over year, the company says uncertainty around future AI demands makes workforce planning difficult. Meta has also not ruled out additional job reductions later in the year as it continues to expand its AI capabilities.
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