Overview
- Meta told employees Thursday that about 8,000 roles will be eliminated on May 20, with roughly 6,000 vacant positions closed the same day.
- U.S. staff who are laid off will get 16 weeks of base pay plus two weeks per year of service, with 18 months of COBRA health coverage paid by the company.
- The company links the cuts to larger AI spending plans, guiding total 2026 expenses to $162–$169 billion as it builds data centers, buys AI hardware and hires specialists.
- Employees were also told of a Model Capability Initiative that logs keystrokes and mouse activity on work devices to train AI agents, raising privacy questions inside the company.
- Microsoft is pursuing a parallel cost shift by offering voluntary buyouts to about 8,750 U.S. employees, underscoring a wider tech trend of reshaping headcount to fund AI.