Meta to cut 8000 employees despite $26B Q1 net income

5 hours ago

Meta plans to lay off roughly 8,000 employees on May 20, eliminating about 10% of its global workforce, despite reporting a highly profitable Q1 2026 with $56.31 billion in revenue and $26.8 billion in net income.
Internal morale is low, with employees reportedly unhappy and some hoping for layoffs to receive generous severance packages of 16 weeks' pay and 18 months of paid healthcare.
Meta executives justify the layoffs as necessary for efficiency and to offset massive AI investments, which are projected to cost between $125 billion and $145 billion in 2026, a significant increase from $72.2 billion in 2025.
Mark Zuckerberg linked the cuts to AI infrastructure costs, hinting at possible further reductions, reminiscent of the 2023 'Year of Efficiency' that saw about 21,000 job cuts; cumulative layoffs since 2022 may exceed 33,000 after these cuts.
Despite layoffs, Meta is in a dominant position with a 33% revenue growth in Q1 2026, its fastest since 2021, while the broader tech sector has seen over 135,000 layoffs in 2026's first five months.
Employee discontent extends beyond layoffs to issues like reduced stock portions in annual raises, falling median compensation, and the deployment of surveillance software on U.S. work laptops to train AI, leading to protests and petitions.

Hasty Briefsbeta