Even in a year where revenue is breaking records, the high price of the artificial intelligence arms race is forcing Meta to make some tough choices. The company is preparing to lay off about 8,000 employees—roughly 10% of its workforce—this month as it shifts its massive financial weight toward AI infrastructure.
Zuckerberg admits AI costs are driving Meta’s layoffs: 8,000 in latest round
In a recent town hall meeting, Mark Zuckerberg laid out a very blunt reality for the team: Meta essentially has two main “cost centers,” which are people and computing infrastructure. As the price of building data centers and buying advanced chips like Nvidia’s GB200 clusters keeps climbing, the budget for a large human staff is getting squeezed.
The company projects a capital expenditure of a staggering $145 billion in 2026. For reference, this is $10 billion more than previous estimates. Zuckerberg pointed out that while AI isn’t directly “stealing” jobs, the cost of the hardware is forcing the company to find savings elsewhere.
Efficiency or automation?
While the layoffs are a financial move, Meta is also looking for ways to “do more with less.” They’ve moved toward an “AI native” structure and are even experimenting with tools that track employee mouse movements and keystrokes. Management claims this data is for training autonomous AI agents. Still, the move has caused plenty of friction internally with employees worried about their future.
Interestingly, Meta isn’t just cutting positions. The firm is also hiring specialists to support its long-term bet on “agentic AI” and its own custom “Artemis” silicon.
A future of uncertainty
Despite a 33% jump in revenue this quarter, Meta’s stock took a 9% hit as investors got nervous about the skyrocketing costs of this AI expansion. For those remaining at the company, the atmosphere is understandably tense. When asked about job security, Zuckerberg didn’t offer a “no layoffs” guarantee, admitting that he doesn’t have a “crystal ball” for how the next few years will play out.
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