Layoffs

Four days. That’s the gap between Meta announcing 8,000 layoffs and Reuters revealing that the company is recording every keystroke, mouse movement, and screen action its employees make — to train AI that does their jobs. You can’t make this stuff up. The Timeline That Says Everything April 17: Reuters reports Meta plans to cut 10% of its 78,865-person workforce starting May 20, with more cuts planned for late 2026. ...

Here’s a number that should stop you cold: Meta is planning to fire roughly 16,000 people — 20% of its entire workforce — while simultaneously doubling its AI spending to $135 billion in 2026. Fire the people. Fund the machines. It’s the most honest statement Big Tech has made about where things are going. The Layoffs Aren’t About Survival This isn’t 2022’s post-pandemic correction. Meta’s advertising business is still a cash machine. These cuts are proactive. The company isn’t trimming because it’s hurting — it’s reallocating capital from human labor to compute infrastructure. ...

Wall Street doesn’t sound alarms. Banks prefer “cautiously optimistic” and “we see tailwinds.” So when Morgan Stanley publishes a report essentially saying a massive AI breakthrough is coming in months and the world isn’t ready, pay attention. Then Reuters dropped Thursday’s bombshell: Meta is planning layoffs affecting 20% or more of its workforce — roughly 15,000 people — to offset staggering AI infrastructure costs. These aren’t separate stories. One is the prediction. The other is the proof. ...

When billionaires start worrying about their children’s job prospects, the rest of us should probably pay attention. “What will our kids do?” That’s the question Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas — the bank’s first-ever “global embodied AI strategist” — says was the single most common thing investors asked at last week’s TMT Conference in San Francisco. Not revenue projections. Not competitive moats. What happens to the next generation of workers. ...