Meta just fired hundreds — its stock rose 3%

Meta just laid off several hundred employees across five different divisions — Reality Labs, Facebook, recruiting, sales, and global operations. The market's response? Meta's stock climbed nearly 3%. Investors didn't flinch. They cheered.

According to WARN Act filings (legal notices companies must file before mass layoffs), 272 employees in California and 331 in Washington are being permanently let go. The actual total is likely higher — these are just the numbers that triggered mandatory disclosure.

$90 Billion in VR Losses, and Counting

The hardest-hit division is Reality Labs — Meta's virtual reality arm that builds the Quest headsets and Horizon Worlds. This unit has now lost roughly $90 billion in operating losses over the past seven years. In 2025 alone, it burned through $19.2 billion.

These latest cuts follow over 1,000 Reality Labs jobs eliminated in January 2025 and another 3,600 performance-based terminations earlier that year. Reports from mid-March suggested executives were preparing plans for a potential 20% workforce reduction — which would mean roughly 15,000 positions from Meta's 78,865-person workforce.

Where the Money Is Going Instead

While cutting workers, Meta is doubling down on AI infrastructure at a staggering scale. The company's 2026 capital expenditure forecast: $115 to $135 billion — nearly double the $72 billion it spent in 2025. That money is going toward data centers, Nvidia GPUs, custom chips, and Meta's Llama AI ecosystem.

Zuckerberg himself framed the shift bluntly: he's seeing "projects that used to require big teams now accomplished by a single very talented person." The message to the remaining workforce is clear — AI is replacing headcount, and the budget proves it.

Meanwhile, Executives Hit the Jackpot

On the same day the layoffs were announced, Meta filed paperwork revealing a new stock option program for six top executives: CFO Susan Li, CTO Andrew Bosworth, COO Javier Olivan, CPO Chris Cox, Vice Chairman Dina Powell McCormick, and Chief Legal Officer C.J. Mahoney.

The catch? These options only pay out if Meta reaches a $9 trillion market capitalization by 2031 — a 6x jump from its current $1.5 trillion valuation. Meta's own filing calls it "a big bet" that "will not be realized unless Meta achieves massive future success."

Mark Zuckerberg is notably not part of this program — he already controls roughly 13% of the company's shares.

A Pattern Across the Industry

Meta isn't alone. Over 45,000 tech jobs were eliminated globally in Q1 2026, with AI cited as the driving force in at least one in five cases. Companies like Atlassian, Amazon, and Block have all implemented similar cuts while simultaneously pouring billions into AI infrastructure.

The pattern is consistent: cut human workers, redirect the savings into AI systems, reward executives for the transition. Whether that bet pays off depends on whether AI can actually deliver the productivity gains that justify a $9 trillion valuation — or whether it turns into a repeat of Meta's $90 billion VR misadventure.

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