Meta Shares Surge on Massive Redundancy Plans Focused on Artificial Intelligence

Meta has announced plans to implement another round of significant workforce reductions this year to concentrate the company’s focus on developing artificial intelligence. The market responded positively to the announcement. Shares in Facebook’s parent company rose nearly 3% on Monday, 16 March, local time.

Shares were trading at US$639. For context, Meta shares overall declined by 7% this year, whilst 2025 saw gains of nearly 13%.

Meta has announced it will eliminate 20% or more of its workforce. The rationale is to balance expenditure on artificial intelligence and capitalise on anticipated productivity improvements from the technology.

Barton Crockett, analyst at Rosenblatt Securities, stated that the 20% staff reduction could save costs of up to US$6 billion.

“This does not necessarily have to stop at 20%. It could potentially be higher in the future if artificial intelligence truly impacts staff productivity,” Crockett explained, as reported by Reuters on Tuesday, 17 March 2026.

Meta has previously lagged behind in artificial intelligence competition compared with other nations. However, the company owned by Mark Zuckerberg is now attempting to catch up through significant investments in recent years.

These investments are designed to build data centres and compete for talent. The company has committed capital of up to US$135 billion (IDR 2.293 trillion) in 2026, double the previous year.

Capital expenditure is intended to secure cloud capacity for training and operating artificial intelligence models. Additionally, it plans to spend up to US$27 billion (IDR 458.6 trillion) from Nebius.

Several companies have announced redundancy plans related to artificial intelligence, similar to Meta’s approach. A total of 61,000 people are expected to lose employment. Some companies announcing redundancies include Amazon and WiseTech from Australia.