By Meta layoffs 2026 reached a new inflection point on March 25, when the company confirmed 700 job cuts across Reality Labs, recruiting, and sales — even as SEC filings showed it granted $921M in stock to four senior executives.
- Meta cut approximately 700 jobs on March 25, 2026, with the deepest cuts falling on Reality Labs, recruiting, sales, and the Facebook social media division.
- On the same day the layoffs were confirmed, SEC filings showed Meta granted stock options worth up to $921 million each to CFO Susan Li, CTO Andrew Bosworth, CPO Chris Cox, and COO Javier Olivan.
- Meta plans to spend between $115 billion and $135 billion on AI infrastructure in 2026, a 75% increase over its capital expenditure in 2025, funding data centers, custom chips, and model training.
- Reuters reported Meta is also weighing a broader restructuring that could affect up to 20% of its 78,800-person workforce, or roughly 15,800 employees, though no date has been set.
Meta layoffs 2026 entered a new chapter on March 25 when the company confirmed 700 job cuts while simultaneously filing paperwork granting nearly $1 billion in stock to its top four executives.
The contrast was stark enough to generate its own news cycle. Workers in Reality Labs, recruiting, and sales were told their roles were eliminated. Four executives received stock plans that could each be worth $921 million. Meta called it “streamlining the business to work more effectively with AI.”
Meta Layoffs 2026: Which Teams Got Cut and Why Reality Labs Keeps Shrinking
The March 25 cuts hit hardest in Reality Labs — Meta’s augmented and virtual reality division — which has now seen multiple rounds of layoffs in 2026 alone. A 10% Reality Labs reduction came in January; three VR studios were shuttered in the same month.
The March round extended cuts to recruiting, global operations, sales, and parts of the core Facebook team. Meta employed 78,800 people as of January 2026, per The Register. The 700 cut represents less than 1% of the company — but Reuters separately reported that Meta is weighing cuts of up to 20% of its workforce, a figure that would reach 15,800 employees.
Meta is laying off hundreds of employees as it pours money into AI https://t.co/9Jx7WBSyku
— The Verge (@verge) March 25, 2026
📊 The Numbers Behind the Pivot
Meta’s 2026 capital expenditure plan: $115B to $135B, up 75% from 2025. Total planned 2026 spending: $162B to $167B. 2025 expenses were $118B. Every dollar cut from headcount is being redirected into data centers, MTIA custom chips, and large language model training.
The $921 Million Executive Stock Grants That Made Headlines
While rank-and-file employees were receiving termination notices, SEC filings revealed Meta had granted stock options worth up to $921 million each to Susan Li (CFO), Andrew Bosworth (CTO), Chris Cox (CPO), and Javier Olivan (COO).
The grants are performance-based and vest over time, so the $921 million figure represents a ceiling, not an immediate payout. But the optics of announcing both on the same day were not lost on anyone watching. CFO Susan Li was candid about the uncertainty during Meta’s January earnings call: “That’s not like, okay, in 2026, the ROI is this — which pains me, to be clear,” per The Register.
JUST IN: Meta $META is planning sweeping layoffs that could affect 20%+ of its workforce, or roughly 15,800 of its ~79,000 employees, per Reuters. Would be the company’s largest cuts since the 2022-23 “year of efficiency.” No date set. AI infrastructure costs cited as a driver. https://t.co/O49L2yGViZ
— WOLF Financial (@WOLF_Financial) March 16, 2026
Where Meta Is Spending the $135 Billion
Meta’s AI infrastructure spend covers three main areas: hyperscale data centers to run training and inference workloads, its MTIA custom AI chip series designed to reduce dependence on Nvidia, and large language model development to compete with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google.
Zuckerberg framed the shift on the January 28 earnings call: “We’re elevating individual contributors, and flattening teams. Projects that used to require big teams can now be accomplished by a single very talented person.” That quote is now the official company line for every headcount reduction that follows. As TechToken reported on similar AI-driven cuts at Microsoft, this pattern — cut humans, buy GPUs — is the defining corporate trend of 2026.
📊 59,000 Tech Layoffs in 2026 So Far
The current round of meta layoffs 2026 is part of a broader industry wave. Amazon, Meta, and Block have collectively cut 59,000 jobs in 2026 so far, per IBTimes. In each case, AI infrastructure investment is cited as the primary reason for redeployment of capital away from headcount.
TechToken Take
The $921 million executive stock grants on the same day as 700 layoffs is not a PR mistake — it is a deliberate signal to the market that Meta’s senior team is deeply incentivized to make this AI bet pay off. Whether that is reassuring or infuriating depends on which side of the org chart you sit. What is clear is that Meta is not retreating from its AI ambitions. It is doubling, tripling, and quadrupling down, and the people who built the metaverse are paying for it with their jobs.
What the Potential 20% Cut Would Mean
The Reuters report on meta layoffs 2026 cites a possible 20% workforce reduction — up to 15,800 employees — has not been confirmed by Meta. If it materializes, it would be the company’s largest single restructuring since Zuckerberg’s 2022-23 “year of efficiency,” which cut 21,000 jobs and sent Meta’s stock from $88 to over $500 in 18 months.
Watch for Meta’s next earnings call and any formal announcements about the scale of restructuring. If the Reuters figures prove accurate, Reality Labs as a standalone hardware division may be heading toward a complete wind-down in favor of software-only AI experiences built on top of its 3.2 billion-user social media base.
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