Companies Pour Heavily into AI Investment While Cutting Staff
Artificial intelligence (AI) continues to advance at a rapid pace. However, behind this progress, there is a price to be paid, and it is the employees who are bearing the burden. Recently, an increasing number of technology companies have chosen to lay off staff in order to redirect resources towards AI investment, both for developing intelligent systems and building supporting infrastructure such as data centres.
Meta has been particularly aggressive, with an AI investment commitment exceeding US$100 billion (approximately IDR 1,764 trillion) this year, with total capital expenditure expected to potentially reach IDR 2,557 trillion. Amidst this massive influx of funding, the livelihoods of tens of thousands of employees hang in the balance.
In executing these cuts, companies generally cite business transformation or restructuring as the reason. However, the pattern remains similar: employees are sacrificed to cover AI investment costs or to directly replace their roles with machines.
Meta laid off 8,000 employees on 20 May 2026, equivalent to 10 per cent of its total workforce, primarily targeting engineering and product teams. Previously, over 7,000 employees had already been reassigned to new AI projects. Oracle terminated 30,000 employees, or 18 per cent of its global workforce, in early April 2026, citing efficiency measures to focus resources on AI and data centre infrastructure.
Amazon cut 16,000 employees in early 2026, following the dismissal of 14,000 employees in October 2025. CEO Andy Jassy stated that AI would result in the company requiring fewer people for certain types of work. Cisco reduced its workforce by 4,000 employees in May 2026, with CEO Chuck Robbins asserting that this move was necessary to focus investment on AI, as AI infrastructure orders are projected to rise to US$9 billion.
Block dismissed more than 4,000 employees, representing 40 per cent of its staff, in February 2026. CEO Jack Dorsey noted that smaller teams equipped with AI tools could actually accomplish more and perform better. Coinbase terminated 700 employees in early May 2026, citing a sluggish crypto market and the need for a more efficient cost structure through AI. Atlassian cut 1,600 employees in March 2026 to improve its financial profile and adjust its work strategy for the AI era. Microsoft offered early retirement to 8,750 US employees at the end of April 2026—the first such move in the company’s 51-year history—as a strategy to secure cash flow amidst surging data centre expenditures.