Tech stocks today: Intel stock soars, Meta to cut 10% of workforce, Microsoft offerings buyouts
Meta (META) is expected to cut as much as 10% of its workforce as it looks for ways to reduce spending amid its massive AI buildout.
The company will lay off roughly 8,000 employees and won’t fill 6,000 positions, as it continues a broader efficiency push CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been pursuing since declaring 2023 Meta’s year of efficiency.
Meta is pouring billions on its AI efforts. It previously spent $14.3 billion on a deal to hire Scale.AI employees including CEO Alexandr Wang, now the company’s chief AI officer, and is standing up data centers to develop and run AI models.
The Meta news comes after CNBC reported that Microsoft (MSFT) will offer voluntary buyouts to upwards of 7% of its US workers.
This program will mark a first for Microsoft, which also laid off thousands of workers in 2025. Microsoft’s peers have made similar moves over the last year. Amazon (AMZN), Google (GOOG, GOOGL), Meta, and Oracle (ORCL) have also laid off employees at various points.
All four companies are also spending billions to construct data centers and develop AI models. Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft alone will spend some $650 billion on capital expenditures in 2026.
The layoffs also follow years of job cuts at tech companies after they dramatically expanded their workforces during the pandemic.
Microsoft stock, which fell about 5% on Thursday, is down about 15% this year, a laggard among the “Magnificent Seven” tech leaders.