Technology companies are cutting jobs at record levels as they pour billions of dollars into artificial intelligence, with Meta leading the wave of layoffs.
Oracle allocated $90 billion for AI spending in the coming fiscal year despite having its credit rating downgraded due to its debt burden. Meta and Amazon have raised their 2026 capital expenditure estimates into the hundreds of billions of dollars. Companies say AI investment is not the only driver, pointing also to post-pandemic overhiring and efforts to reduce bureaucracy.
A PricewaterhouseCoopers analysis spanning six continents found that AI is a job creator rather than a job destroyer. The research indicated that firms investing more heavily in AI are hiring faster than those investing less, as they use the technology to boost worker productivity and generate new value.
San Francisco is cited as an example of this dynamic. Despite layoffs this year, the city’s unemployment rate fell to 3.7 percent, as AI companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic have continued hiring.
