Meta slashes employee stock awards by 5% as Zuckerberg channels billions into AI infrastructure

Zuckerberg cuts Meta employee bonuses by 5%, follows 10% reduction last year, despite AI splurge -- $130 billion capex vision and eye-watering AI pay packages force efficiency elsewhere in the business

Meta has reportedly reduced the stock options that staff received by 5%, following a 10% reduction in the same bonus from the year before. According to the Financial Times, this move comes as the company is spending billions of dollars on capital expenditures while also offering salaries of up to $2 million, $100 million bonuses, and even a reported $1.25 billion offer to a particular individual to shore up its AI talent. The company calls its stock option awards equity refreshers, and they're given to most of its employees on top of base salaries and annual cash bonuses. The equity award is adjusted based on industry trends, but Meta still aims to deliver one of the largest pay packages in its area. Despite the stock cuts, it has also revamped its performance review system, with the highest achievers reportedly getting a larger reward. Because of this, the company's overall remuneration is actually expected to increase even with the reduction in bonuses. Meta is pushing to outcompete OpenAI, Google, xAI, among others, to develop the most advanced large language models (LLMs) and eventually build its own artificial general intelligence. So, aside from the large amounts of money it's throwing at AI engineers and scientists, it's also going big on AI infrastructure. In 2025, it announced a plan to spend at least $65 billion on data centers, including a 2GW site with over 1.3 million Nvidia AI GPUs. It also started putting these AI processors in tents for faster deployment, with Zuckerberg announcing a data center site that's as big as Manhattan. To power all these projects, Meta inked a deal for 6 gigawatts of nuclear power earlier this year -- enough to deliver the electricity needs of 5 million homes. But even as Mark Zuckerberg is pushing headfirst into AI, investors are getting jittery about the amount of money being spent on the technology. Because of this, the company is also trimming its less performant units. In January 2026, its metaverse division slashed 1,500 jobs, while it also let go of about 8,000 workers last year -- a part of the 100,000 tech industry positions caught in layoffs as of mid-2025. There were some complaints in Meta's anonymous employee messaging board about the bonus cuts. "Another reduction. I guess that's what I get for trying! Bye Meta!" one comment said, as per the Financial Times. Another one wrote, "Cutting my work hours 5%." Nevertheless, the company still has one of the best pay packages in the industry. If you pair that with the uncertainty of white-collar jobs over the threat of AI, it's unlikely that Meta will see a mass exodus of its workers anytime soon. Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds.

Meta cuts stock awards by 5% for most employees to fund AI goals, FT reports

Feb 19 (Reuters) - Meta (META.O), opens new tab reduced its annual distribution of stock options by about 5% for most of its staff, as CEO Mark Zuckerberg ploughs billions of dollars into its artificial intelligence goals, the Financial Times reported on Thursday. The Facebook parent did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Reuters could not independently verify the report. Meta and other Big Tech companies are competing to outbuild each other with massive data centers to get ahead in Silicon Valley's heated AI race. The social media company expects capital expenditure for 2026 to be between $115 billion and $135 billion. Meta has slashed equity-based awards for the bulk of its employees for the second year in a row, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter. Last year, the company had cut the stock award by roughly 10%, which shocked some staff at the time, according to the report. Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

Meta Slashes Employee Equity For Second Year As Mark Zuckerberg-Led Tech Giant Gears Up To Fund Mega $135 Billion 'Superintelligence' Infrastructure - Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)

Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) has reduced annual stock awards for the majority of its workforce by approximately 5%, marking the second consecutive year of equity cuts as the company reallocates billions toward Artificial Intelligence. Funding The AI Arms Race The move of slashing stock awards comes as CEO Mark Zuckerberg prepares for a massive infrastructure expansion, with 2026 capital expenditure projected to reach a record-high range of $115 billion to $135 billion. The reduction in employee compensation, first reported by the Financial Times, follows a more substantial 10% cut to stock grants last year. The savings are being funneled directly into "Meta Superintelligence Labs," a core initiative aimed at developing AI that can outperform human capabilities. "This is going to be a big year for delivering personal superintelligence," Zuckerberg told investors during the fourth-quarter earnings call. He emphasized that Meta would "continue to invest very significantly in infrastructure to train leading models." Gigawatt-Scale Ambitions Meta's $135 billion spending goal -- a figure that rivals the entire annual budget of New York State -- is primarily driven by the construction of gigawatt-scale data centers. These massive facilities, described by Zuckerberg as having the "energy footprint of a small city," are essential for the computational power required by next-generation AI. Shifting From Metaverse To Wearables The pivot to AI has also led to internal restructuring. Meta recently laid off 10% of its Reality Labs division, which has incurred over $70 billion in losses since 2021. The company is reportedly shifting resources away from pure virtual reality toward AI-powered wearables and "personal superintelligence" products. Meta Declines In 2026 Shares of META have declined by 0.87% year-to-date, while the Nasdaq 100 index was down by 1.62% in the same period. The stock was 14.20% lower over the last six months and 8.38% over the year. META maintains a weaker price trend over the long, short, and medium terms, with a solid quality ranking, as per Benzinga's Edge Stock Rankings. Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Photo Courtesy: gguy on Shutterstock.com Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs To add Benzinga News as your preferred source on Google, click here.

Meta cuts stock awards by 5% for most employees to fund AI goals, FT reports

Feb 19 (Reuters) - Meta reduced its annual distribution of stock options by about 5% for most of its staff, as CEO Mark Zuckerberg ploughs billions of dollars into its artificial intelligence goals, the Financial Times reported on Thursday. The Facebook parent did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Reuters could not independently verify the report. Meta and other Big Tech companies are competing to outbuild each other with massive data centers to get ahead in Silicon Valley's heated AI race. The social media company expects capital expenditure for 2026 to be between $115 billion and $135 billion. Meta has slashed equity-based awards for the bulk of its employees for the second year in a row, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter. Last year, the company had cut the stock award by roughly 10%, which shocked some staff at the time, according to the report. (Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona)