Meta cuts thousands of jobs while boosting spending on AI

In short: Meta is shrinking parts of its workforce while putting far more money into building and running AI systems.

What's going on

A New York Times opinion piece argues that Meta has started a “long, slow slide into irrelevance.” But the company’s recent actions point to a different story, a big push to lead in AI, even as it cuts jobs.

Meta has announced job cuts of about 8,000 people starting May 20, 2026, which is roughly 10% of its workforce. It also cancelled about 6,000 open roles, which means about 14,000 positions are being removed in total. Reports also say more cuts could come in the second half of 2026.

Meta says the changes are tied to reorganizing teams around AI work. Internal notes described new AI focused team structures, sometimes called “pods” (small groups built around one goal, like a project squad). Meta leadership has also said some work that once needed large teams can now be done by a smaller number of highly skilled AI specialists.

At the same time, Meta plans to spend much more on AI infrastructure in 2026, reported at $115 billion to $135 billion. That money is expected to go mostly to data centers and computing hardware, which are the warehouses and machines that power AI (like building more and bigger kitchens to cook more meals, faster).

What to watch

Meta’s bet is expensive and it comes with risks, including employee pushback on monitoring tools and questions about whether the spending pays off. For now, the evidence looks more like a company reallocating money toward AI than one fading away.

Source: NYTimes