Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told employees on Friday that the company had made “mistakes” in its rapid pivot to artificial intelligence, speaking internally one day after the social media giant completed its largest round of job cuts since 2022. The layoffs eliminated roughly 8,000 positions, approximately 10 percent of Meta’s total workforce.

Zuckerberg’s acknowledgment of missteps was unusual for an executive who has historically presented major workforce changes as straightforward strategic moves. He did not specify which decisions he regretted, but said the pace of AI-related change had made it difficult to correctly predict which teams and skill sets the company would need. He added that further company-wide cuts were not planned for 2026.

Beyond the reductions, Meta announced that approximately 7,000 employees are being reassigned into newly created AI-focused divisions, including teams dedicated to applied AI engineering, an Agent Transformation Accelerator unit, and a central analytics group.

Meta projected capital expenditures of between $125 billion and $145 billion for 2026, more than double the previous year’s spending, directed toward AI data centres, custom silicon development, and training infrastructure for its next-generation models, including the recently released Llama 4 series.

The scale of the cuts drew sharp reactions from technology workers and labour advocates across Singapore, the UK, and the US. Zuckerberg pledged to increase investment in team-building and planned a large company-wide hackathon in July focused on new AI model development.

Meta’s shares rose slightly on Friday after the news, with investors treating the restructuring as a sign the company was moving aggressively to contain costs while doubling down on AI. The shifts compare with Microsoft’s own AI model push announced at Build 2026. Meta investor relations published supporting financial data. Earlier AI industry milestones like Anthropic’s IPO set the competitive backdrop for Meta’s aggressive spending plans.