Menlo Park, California — March 26, 2026, 09:16 PDT
- Meta plans to cut several hundred jobs across different teams, part of a broader AI-focused restructuring.
- Meta is holding to its forecast for 2026 capital expenditures at $115 billion to $135 billion, still eyeing heavy investment in data centers and chips. Full-year expenses are projected between $162 billion and $169 billion.
- Meta’s stock slipped roughly 6.4% Thursday morning, pulling its market value down to $1.84 trillion.
Meta Platforms is cutting a few hundred jobs across several divisions, stepping up its focus on artificial intelligence and trimming staff even as it invests heavily. Teams affected include Reality Labs, social media, and recruiting, according to a source cited by Reuters.
Why does it matter? Meta wants investors backing what’s now a much pricier machine. Back in January, the company projected 2026 capital expenditures—capex, referring to spending on bigger-ticket items like data centers and chips—would hit somewhere between $115 billion and $135 billion. Total expenses? Those would climb to $162 billion to $169 billion.
It’s not just staffing numbers feeling the squeeze. Fresh regulatory filings reveal Meta handed senior execs stock options that vest only if the company’s valuation rockets past $9 trillion by 2028—a figure nowhere near the current share price.
Meta shares slipped around 6.4% during early U.S. trading on Thursday, knocking its market cap down to approximately $1.84 trillion. That figure trails Alphabet’s $2.94 trillion and is a distant third behind Nvidia’s $4.53 trillion. This new valuation also sits well below the targets set in executive stock awards announced this week.
Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s chief executive, told analysts back in January that 2026 is shaping up to be a “big year” for what the company is calling “personal superintelligence”—that’s Meta’s label for more advanced, individually tailored AI. Funding for this push is still coming from Meta’s advertising operations. For 2025, revenue climbed 22% to $200.97 billion. Daily active people on Meta’s family of apps hit an average of 3.58 billion in December. Reuters
“Meta is an example where the valuation is really not that demanding,” said John Belton, portfolio manager at Gabelli Funds—which holds the stock—in an interview with Reuters after January’s results. He noted that it’s ad cash flow, rather than generative AI revenue, footing the bill for the ongoing investment. Reuters
Meta is pulling back from some of its earlier initiatives. Reality Labs—the group responsible for its VR and AR efforts—racked up a $19.19 billion operating loss in 2025. The most recent round of cuts has landed there too, as Meta pushes more funding into AI infrastructure and staffing.
Meta described the latest layoffs as just routine shuffling inside the company. “Teams regularly restructure,” a spokesperson said, adding that Meta is working to place employees hit by the cuts into other jobs. Reuters
The broader story now includes the sheer size of the expansion. On Wednesday, Meta President Dina Powell McCormick put it bluntly: the U.S. needs an entirely new workforce to compete in AI. That means 500,000 electricians just to handle the infrastructure buildout, she said.
Meta isn’t the only one ramping up spending. Bridgewater Associates pegs total AI infrastructure investment by the largest U.S. tech players at around $650 billion for 2026, with Alphabet and Microsoft also aggressively building out their data centers and chip supply.
Money doesn’t seem likely to solve everything. Reuters Breakingviews points to snarls up and down the supply chain—power hookups, permits, turbines, transformers, cooling—while Meta flags infrastructure and the hunt for technical talent as the main forces pushing expenses higher this year.
Wall Street’s view is divided. Meta continues to run a heavyweight ad operation in tech, yet its shot at the $3 trillion mark now hangs on whether AI investments can push revenue higher at a pace that beats out layoffs, mounting expenses, and the hard ceiling on data-center expansion.
