It's chaos! Meta and Microsoft laid off 17k people in one day. Amid the AI overhaul wave, is the $BTC in your hands still safe?

Tech giants are restructuring their personnel at an unprecedented speed. The capital expenditure pressures brought by the AI arms race have forced Meta and Microsoft to announce large-scale layoffs within hours of each other. This wave has already swept through several Silicon Valley companies like Snap, Block, and Amazon, as a new era of technology industry, under the banner of “efficiency first,” is taking shape.

According to market data, Meta plans to cut about 10% of its staff on May 20, involving approximately 8,000 people, and will keep 6,000 planned new hires vacant, affecting nearly 18% of the company’s current total employees. An internal memo from Meta characterized this as a necessary move to “improve operational efficiency and free up space for other investments.” Analysts point out that this round of layoffs is more akin to “employee replacement” rather than pure cost control—generally, the positions cut are versatile roles, while new hires are likely to be higher-paid AI and specialized technical talent.

Meanwhile, Microsoft announced its first voluntary retirement plan in its 51-year history, targeting about 7% of its U.S. employees. With approximately 126k employees in the U.S., the potential number of departures could exceed 9,000. After the announcement of the layoffs, both companies’ stock prices came under pressure. Over the past six months, Microsoft’s stock has fallen nearly 20%, reaching its worst performance since 1997 in early April; Meta’s stock has remained roughly flat this year.

This voluntary retirement plan launched by Microsoft is the first time in its 51-year history that such a mechanism has been used, according to verifiable records. An internal memo states that the plan was announced by Microsoft Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer Amy Coleman, and is described as a “one-time retirement program.” Coleman wrote in the memo: “We hope this program allows eligible employees to take the next step at their own pace and receive generous support from the company.” Eligibility is strictly limited: employees must be at the senior director level or below, and the sum of their years of service and age must reach 70 or more. Microsoft’s 2025 annual report shows the company has about 228k employees worldwide, with approximately 126k in the U.S. Based on the roughly 7% rate, the potential number of departures could exceed 9,000. Although the actual participation is expected to be only a “small portion of employees,” this scale still represents the company’s largest proactive personnel restructuring to date.

This personnel adjustment is not an isolated move. At the end of March, Microsoft had already frozen hiring for some positions in its cloud computing and sales departments. Last year, it cut more than 15k employees in sales, Xbox, and other divisions. Alongside layoffs, the company is also implementing a systematic reform of its compensation system—splitting equity incentives and cash bonuses, and simplifying management performance evaluation options from nine tiers to five, to concentrate resources on rewarding core employees.

Meta’s layoffs are a direct financial reflection of Zuckerberg’s high-stakes AI gamble. In January this year, Meta disclosed that capital expenditures might nearly double to $135 billion, used for data center construction and recruiting high-end AI talent to catch up with Google and OpenAI. Meta’s Chief People Officer Janelle Gale admitted in an internal memo: “This is one of our ongoing efforts to improve operational efficiency and free up space for other investments. I know this is unwelcome news, and confirming this decision will cause discomfort for everyone, but we believe this is the best path forward given the current circumstances.” The layoffs will be executed on May 20, and affected employees will receive “generous severance packages,” with U.S. employees eligible for 18 months of medical insurance coverage. Gale also acknowledged: “I know this leaves everyone facing nearly a month of uncertainty, which is extremely unsettling.”

This round of layoffs continues the personnel adjustments Meta has made over the past two years. Several employees reported experiencing multiple rounds of layoffs, restructuring, and executive changes, with internal morale remaining tense. Additionally, reports indicate that Meta plans to install tracking software to monitor employees’ mouse movements, clicks, keyboard inputs, and screen content to train AI models, sparking employee concerns about “self-replacement.” Historical data shows that large-scale layoffs in tech companies often do not significantly reduce overall employment but instead serve as a “blood transfusion”—replacing laid-off employees with higher-paid, specialized talent. Meta projects total expenditures will increase by 40% by 2026, explicitly including costs for new hiring in AI and other priority areas, meaning this round of layoffs may not yield immediate significant cost savings.

The actions of Meta and Microsoft are not isolated but part of a broader structural adjustment across Silicon Valley. Snap cut 16% of its staff, Block reduced 40%, Oracle implemented large-scale layoffs; the Gates Foundation also plans to cut about 500 positions, roughly 20% of its workforce.

This wave of layoffs exhibits a different market logic from previous cycles. Layoffs are no longer seen by investors as a sign of company trouble but as a demonstration of “decisive action” by management. Venture capitalists note that most companies reducing 30% to 50% of their staff do not substantially impact performance, and the rise of AI provides management with a ready excuse to push forward with “long-overdue personnel optimization.” Block’s CFO and COO Amrita Ahuja revealed that after announcing a 40% reduction, many corporate executives proactively contacted Block seeking to replicate this “large-scale layoff script.” She straightforwardly said this approach is “inevitable,” adding, “As a CFO, I believe it’s better to act early than to fall behind.”

This trend reflects a fundamental shift in how tech companies view professional talent. Over the past decade, many firms have offered high salaries and generous benefits to attract knowledge workers, but now, corporate leaders generally believe that large teams hinder development. Meanwhile, laid-off employees face increasingly tough circumstances—U.S. Labor Department data shows that over the past 12 months, the unemployment rate for college graduates aged 34 and under has matched or even surpassed that of those with two-year degrees at 4.1%, with re-employment challenges for white-collar workers rising significantly.

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