Meta Platforms shares climbed nearly 3% after reports that the social media company is considering workforce reductions of 20% or more as it ramps up spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure.
If implemented, the cuts would represent the largest round of layoffs since Meta’s 2022–2023 restructuring, when about 21,000 jobs were eliminated during what the company called its “year of efficiency.” Meta employed roughly 79,000 people at the end of December.
The potential reductions come as Meta sharply increases investment in AI systems, including new data centers and computing capacity required to train large models. The company expects capital expenditures to reach as much as $135 billion in 2026, nearly double the previous year’s level. Meta also recently signed a deal to spend up to $27 billion on cloud capacity from infrastructure provider Nebius.
Executives have argued that AI tools could significantly boost productivity across engineering and product teams. However, Meta has yet to release a flagship model capable of competing with offerings from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google.
