Meta is cutting 10% of its workforce. Again.

Meta is doing what Meta does best: firing a bunch of people while telling everyone it’s for their own good.

According to a memo from chief people officer Janelle Gale, the company plans to lay off about 10 percent of its staff in May. That’s roughly 8,000 people. On top of that, they’re closing around 6,000 open positions they never bothered to fill.

This is the same company that spent 2023 calling itself the “year of efficiency” while cutting 21,000 jobs. Now we’re in 2026, and apparently efficiency needs another round.

The official reason? Meta is doubling down on AI. They’re spending eye-watering amounts to hire top AI talent and build data centers. In January, they forecast capital expenditures between $115 billion and $135 billion for 2026. That’s up from $72.22 billion in 2025. The increase is meant to “support our AI ambitions,” which is corporate speak for “we’re burning cash on GPUs and hoping it pays off.”

I get it. AI is the hot thing. Every tech company is terrified of being left behind. But there’s something deeply cynical about firing thousands of people while spending over a hundred billion dollars on infrastructure. It’s not that Meta can’t afford both — it’s that they’ve decided people are a cost to cut, while hardware is an investment.

This pattern is getting old. Meta lays off workers, blames macroeconomic conditions or restructuring, then turns around and spends even more on AI. The message is clear: if you’re not building the next LLM or training a model, you’re expendable.

What really grinds my gears is how they frame this as strategic. “We’re focusing on our priorities.” No, you’re cutting costs to fund a gamble. AI might pay off, or it might be another metaverse-level boondoggle. Either way, 8,000 people lose their jobs so Zuckerberg can chase the next shiny thing.

The 6,000 open roles being closed is also telling. Meta was already not hiring for those positions, so this isn’t about trimming fat — it’s about sending a signal to investors that they’re serious about “efficiency.” Meanwhile, anyone who survived the last round of cuts is probably wondering if they’re next.

I’ve been covering tech layoffs for years, and this one hits differently. Not because of the scale — we’ve seen bigger — but because of the sheer predictability. Meta has become a company that periodically culls its workforce to fund whatever the CEO is obsessed with this quarter. It’s not management. It’s a cycle.

If you’re a Meta employee reading this: start updating your resume. Even if your team is safe this time, the writing is on the wall. This company will keep cutting until there’s nothing left but AI researchers and the people who clean the data centers.

And if you’re an investor: enjoy the short-term stock bump. Long-term, I’m not sure a company that treats its workforce like a tap you can turn on and off is going to build the kind of culture that produces great products.

But hey, maybe I’m wrong. Maybe this time the AI bet pays off and Meta becomes the dominant player in whatever comes next. Or maybe we’ll be having this same conversation in 2027.