Meta Platforms (META) Stock Cuts 8,000 Jobs as AI Spending Hits $145 Billion

TLDR

• Meta is cutting roughly 8,000 jobs this week, about 10% of its workforce, plus scrapping plans to fill 6,000 open roles.
• The layoffs start Wednesday and follow earlier cuts in January and March 2026, with more rounds reportedly planned for August and later in the year.
• Meta raised its 2026 capital expenditure guidance by up to $10 billion, bringing the total to as high as $145 billion, all focused on AI.
• CFO Susan Li admitted executives “don’t really know what the optimal size of the company will be in the future.”
• META stock closed at $614.23 on Friday, and analysts hold a Strong Buy consensus with an average price target of $829.97.

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Meta is cutting around 8,000 jobs this week, roughly 10% of its total workforce. The company has also canceled plans to fill 6,000 open positions, a move first flagged in an internal memo in April.

Meta Platforms, Inc., META

The reductions are scheduled to begin Wednesday. They come after Meta already trimmed around 1,000 workers in January through its Reality Labs unit, followed by more cuts in March.

META stock closed Friday at $614.23, down slightly on the day.

AI Spending Takes Over

The key driver behind these cuts is a major ramp-up in AI spending. Last month, Meta raised its 2026 capital expenditure guidance by as much as $10 billion. Total spend is now seen reaching as high as $145 billion.

CFO Susan Li spoke about this during the first-quarter earnings call. She said the company has “continued to underestimate our compute needs” even as it has ramped up capacity. She also said executives “don’t really know what the optimal size of the company will be in the future.”

Current and former employees told CNBC that more layoffs are expected this year, including a possible round in August and another later in 2026.

So far in 2026, nearly 110,000 layoffs have hit 137 tech companies, according to Layoffs.fyi. That compares to roughly 125,000 cuts throughout all of 2025.

Meta is also moving away from using third-party vendors and contractors for content moderation work.

Internal Tracking Tool Raises Concerns

A new internal tool has added to staff unease. CNBC reported that Meta’s Model Capability Initiative tracks worker activity, including mouse movements and keystrokes, to help train AI agents for coding and office tasks.

Morale appears strained. Reports suggest more cuts could come in August and again in the fall, which has added to anxiety inside the company.

On Wall Street, the picture looks different. Of 34 analysts covering META, 30 rate it a Buy and four rate it a Hold. The average price target sits at $829.97, implying upside of around 36% from Friday’s close of $614.23.

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