Meta and Microsoft cut more than 23,000 jobs as AI spending rises

Meta and Microsoft announced workforce reductions on the same day, April 23, affecting up to 23,000 positions combined. Meta told employees it would cut approximately 8,000 jobs, roughly 10 percent of its staff, and cancel 6,000 open roles effective May 20. Microsoft launched its first-ever voluntary retirement programme, offering buyouts to up to 8,750 US employees whose age plus years of service equals 70. Both companies reported record revenues in their most recent quarters. Both are also spending record amounts on artificial intelligence infrastructure. The cuts are not driven by financial distress but by a strategic shift to substitute human payroll for AI capital expenditure. The reductions bring the total number of tech workers laid off in 2026 to approximately 96,000. The pattern suggests that even highly profitable technology firms are reallocating budgets from headcount to compute clusters and data centre expansion.