Since the beginning of this year, U.S. tech companies have cut about 140,000 jobs, accounting for over one-third of the total announced layoffs in the U.S.
Since the beginning of this year, U.S. tech companies have cut about 140,000 jobs, accounting for over one-third of the total announced layoffs in the U.S.
Among them, Amazon, Oracle, Meta, and Microsoft have collectively cut about 50,000 jobs, indicating that layoffs are concentrated among the giants heavily investing in AI and infrastructure expansion.
In market mechanisms, buyers are capital efficiency and AI investment returns, while sellers are redundant management layers and duplicate functions; when companies shift budgets towards data centers, computing power, and automation, the first costs to be squeezed out are labor costs.
Source: Public information
ABAB AI Insight
This round of layoffs is not merely about cost-cutting, but rather a restructuring of capital expenditure by tech companies. Multiple reports have mentioned that Amazon, Oracle, Meta, and Microsoft are laying off employees while significantly redirecting funds towards AI infrastructure, data centers, and computing power expansion, indicating that layoffs and investments are not two separate matters, but two sides of the same coin.
In terms of capital pathways, human jobs are being reclassified: supportive, process-oriented, and redundant functions are being compressed first, leaving positions directly tied to growth, cloud revenue, AI deployment, and customer contracts. This is particularly evident in Oracle and Microsoft, with the former facing scrutiny over AI spending returns, while the latter is creating space for larger-scale AI capacity through layoffs and buyouts.
Historically, similar situations typically occur at the early stages of a technological paradigm shift: companies first pay for new infrastructure, then clear out old organizational structures. The difference this time is that the adjustment is happening more rapidly, as AI is both replacing tasks and reshaping budget priorities, leading to simultaneous "increased investment in AI" and "reductions in workforce."
Essentially, this is about technological substitution: layoffs are not solely driven by economic recession, but AI and automation are redefining which positions are worth keeping; those who can directly connect to new revenue are safer.
ABAB News · Cognitive Law
New technology first consumes people, then profits.
Where the budget shifts, jobs disappear.
In the AI era, the first to be replaced are often the middle layers.