![\"Image](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1777571730_195_GettyImages-2267997264.jpg\")
Mark Zuckerberg is trimming headcount while pouring billions into A.I. Tom Williams\/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images<\/p>\n\t\tMark Zuckerberg is trimming headcount while pouring billions into A.I. Tom Williams\/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Meta<\/a>\u2019s upcoming 10 percent staff layoff is just the beginning. A reduced workforce could be the new normal as Mark Zuckerberg<\/a> shifts spending toward A.I. rather than human employees<\/a>. \u201cWe are seeing more and more examples where one or two people are building something in a week that would have previously taken dozens of people months,\u201d Zuckerberg told analysts during Meta\u2019s first-quarter earnings call yesterday (April 29). As the company pushes toward artificial general intelligence<\/a>, or A.G.I., Meta will be \u201cstreamlining our teams so they are not bigger than they need to be,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Block-observer-newsletters observer-newsletters–in-content”><\/p>\n Earlier this month, Meta warned employees of a May workforce reduction affecting about 10 percent of its roughly 78,000 staff. Chief Financial Officer Susan Li<\/a> addressed the cuts on the earnings call, saying the downsizing \u201cwill allow us to move more quickly while also helping to offset the substantial investments we are making.\u201d<\/p>\n Like much of Big Tech, Meta is ramping up A.I. spending. The company raised its projected 2026 capital expenditures to between $125 billion and $145 billion, up from a prior range of $115 billion to $135 billion. The increase comes as Meta beat Wall Street\u2019s first-quarter expectations, with revenue rising 33 percent year over year to $56.3 billion and net income jumping 61 percent to $26.7 billion. Still, shares fell about 9 percent today (April 30) after daily active people (DAP) growth fell short of analyst forecasts. Meta had 3.56 billion daily active users at the end of 2025, up 4 percent from the previous year.<\/p>\n Meta\u2019s A.I. push includes building out its Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL), staffed with researchers recruited through aggressive compensation packages<\/a>. A surge in salaries contributed to a 35 percent year-over-year increase in quarterly expenses to $33.4 billion. \u201cThe growth in employee compensation was driven by technical hires we have added over the past year, particularly A.I. talent,\u201d said Li.<\/p>\n Even as Meta trims headcount, executives say the company hasn\u2019t settled on what its future workforce should look like. \u201cWe do not really know what the optimal size will be in the future,\u201d said Li. \u201cWe will be continuously evaluating how we are structured to make sure we are best set up to deliver against our priorities over the coming years.\u201d<\/p>\n A.I. is also reshaping Zuckerberg\u2019s own role. The CEO is reportedly developing an A.I.-powered avatar of himself<\/a> to interact with employees in his absence, along with a \u201cCEO agent\u201d to handle routine executive tasks.<\/p>\n Meta\u2019s cuts reflect a broader shift across the tech industry. In February, Block CEO Jack Dorsey<\/a> slashed about 40 percent of his workforce<\/a>\u2014roughly 4,000 employees\u2014citing an A.I.-first strategy and predicting similar moves across the sector by the end of 2026. Snap<\/a>, led by Evan Spiegel<\/a>, also laid off around 1,000 workers last month in anticipation of A.I.-driven efficiencies.<\/p>\n Microsoft<\/a> is moving in the same direction as it prepares to spend an estimated $190 billion on A.I.-related capital expenditures this year. Earlier this month, the company introduced its first voluntary buyout program for U.S. employees whose age and years of service total at least 70, about 7 percent of its 125,000-person workforce, or roughly 8,000 employees. The program is expected to add about $900 million in one-time costs this quarter, CFO Amy Hood<\/a> said on Microsoft\u2019s earnings call yesterday. She signaled further reductions ahead.<\/p>\n \u201cWe continue to evolve how we operate to increase our pace and agility,\u201d Hood told analysts. \u201cTherefore, we expect headcount will decrease year-over-year.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Georgia Fearn contributed reporting.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mark Zuckerberg is trimming headcount while pouring billions into A.I. Tom Williams\/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images Meta\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23355,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[6744,15552,3013,25,1513,309,3775,5174,3192,1297,1112,1122,320,2586,15516,134],"class_list":{"0":"post-23354","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-agi","8":"tag-agi","9":"tag-amy-hood","10":"tag-artificial-general-intelligence","11":"tag-artificial-intelligence","12":"tag-block","13":"tag-business","14":"tag-earnings","15":"tag-evan-spiegel","16":"tag-jack-dorsey","17":"tag-layoffs","18":"tag-mark-zuckerberg","19":"tag-meta","20":"tag-microsoft","21":"tag-snap","22":"tag-susan-li","23":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}