Meta, Microsoft shrink workforce amid AI spending

Meta and Microsoft are significantly downsizing their workforces as the US tech sector grapples with AI-fueled disruptions.

Meta announced Thursday it was laying off 10% of its staff, about 8,000 employees, citing efforts to become more efficient and “offset other investments,” alluding to its heavy AI spending.

And Microsoft, for the first time, is offering voluntary buyouts to 7% of its US staff. Other Big Tech firms, including Amazon and Oracle, have undergone layoffs amid the AI expenditure boom. But a growing chorus is skeptical that AI is driving such layoffs: The head of startup Scale AI said at Semafor World Economy that many of the cuts are just “right-sizing and [the companies] need an excuse.”