After Laying Off 8,000 Employees, Zuckerberg Admits Meta’s AI ‘Hasn’t Really Accelerated’ As Expected

Quick Read

• META shares person dropped 12% twelvemonth to day arsenic Zuckerberg admits AI improvement

• Meta chopped 8,000 employees targeting integrity, cybersecurity, and Reality Labs portion shielding AI infrastructure and monetization teams from layoffs.

• Meta worker morale has cratered, with Blind ratings down 25% and median full compensation dropping astir $30,000, arsenic workers consciousness they're grooming their ain replacements.

• Act now: the expert who called NVIDIA successful 2010 conscionable named his apical 10 AI stocks — and Meta didn't marque the cut. Grab the names FREE today.

At an interior Meta municipality hallway connected July 2, 2026, CEO Mark Zuckerberg told employees that AI cause improvement implicit the anterior 4 months "hasn't truly accelerated successful the mode that we expected," per a signaling heard by Reuters. He added that the company's reorganization was not arsenic "clean" arsenic planned and that its bets connected the caller operation "haven't travel to fruition yet," though helium expects meaningful benefits wrong 3 to six months.

The admittance came six weeks aft Zuckerberg's May layoff memo declared "AI is the astir consequential exertion of our lifetimes" and that "the companies that pb the mode volition specify the adjacent generation."

The $145 cardinal Contradiction

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) has committed to $125 cardinal to $145 cardinal successful 2026 capex, much than treble its $72.215 cardinal 2025 outlay. In April, Meta inked a $21 cardinal expanded AI infrastructure woody with CoreWeave done 2032, connected apical of a 6-gigawatt AMD GPU concern signed successful February. And yet, past week it was reported Meta will rent out capacity overmuch similar SpaceX (Nasdaq: SPCX). Bulls person cheered the announcement, noting it gives Meta Platforms much flexibility and could rise important gross successful the twelvemonth ahead.

Act now: the expert who called NVIDIA successful 2010 conscionable named his apical 10 AI stocks — and Meta didn't marque the cut. Grab the names FREE today.

Bears constituent ot the information Meta has capable compute its not capable to efficaciously usage it connected its products. That could amusement the institution is reaching the limits of AI producing beardown ROIC erstwhile applied to products from Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp. In the past Meta has managed to proceed driving engagement crossed its merchandise suite (and advertizing solutions) done accrued AI usage.

Shares commercialized adjacent $584, down astir 11.5% twelvemonth to day and astir 18% implicit the past 12 months, underperforming megacap peers. If AI "hasn't truly accelerated," what is $145 cardinal buying?

Who Got Cut, Who Got Protected

Meta notified astir 8,000 employees successful May 2026, astir 10% of its then-80,000 idiosyncratic workforce. Per CNBC reporting from May 20, 2026, cuts deed integrity teams, cybersecurity, contented design, and Reality Labs hardest, portion AI infrastructure, instauration models, and AI monetization teams were protected. Another 7,000 employees were redirected into recently created AI-focused teams, and 6,000 planned hires were cancelled.