The Coming Layoffs and the Revenge of the Measurers
Bilal Tahir
It's May 2026 and the layoffs aren't coming. They're here. Meta cut 8,000 this month, roughly 10% of the company, and redirected 7,000 to AI teams. Cloudflare cut 1,100, the first mass layoff in its 16-year history. Tech layoffs have passed 100,000 for the year. The four hyperscalers are planning $725B in AI capex in 2026, up 77% year-over-year.
The "they just overhired during COVID and are self correcting" line was the dominant counter-argument presented by your favorite VC influencers ....