TL;DRMeta will begin cutting 8,000 jobs on 20 May while reporting record quarterly revenue of $56.31 billion, as the company raises AI infrastructure spending to as much as $145 billion in 2026. Employee morale has cratered, with internal protests over surveillance software, declining compensation, and the expectation of further layoffs through the autumn.
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, and it is converting one into the other on a scale that no technology company has attempted before.
