Meta has cut roughly 8,000 jobs this year, about 10% of its workforce, as it pours up to $135 billion into AI infrastructure, with reductions landing hardest on non-AI product and support teams, including parts of its integrity and cybersecurity staff. The company also canceled plans to hire 6,000 more people and shifted thousands of existing employees into AI-related roles, freeing up operating budget that Zuckerberg wants redirected toward data centers and GPUs. Meta has budgeted $115 billion to $135 billion in capital expenditures for 2026, nearly double the $72 billion it spent in 2025, and has told investors it is preparing for a data center build-out that could run close to $600 billion through 2028. It is Meta's largest round of cuts since the "year of efficiency" that eliminated around 21,000 roles in 2022 and 2023. Meta already trimmed roughly 600 jobs from its AI Superintelligence Labs unit on October 22, just months after it spent $14.3 billion to acquire a stake in Scale AI and recruit Alexandr Wang as chief AI officer. The timing lands amid a rough stretch for the AI trade, with AMD and Arm Holdings each down more than 20% on the month in November, according to Bloomberg, and KeyBanc Capital Markets analysts flagged in November that Meta faces mounting questions from investors over spending levels against unclear returns.