8k in May and speculation of another 12k by the end of this year. That will put them back at their 2020 employment level.

If so, that means 0 employment growth in 6 years after averaging about 30% mean growth per year the 5 years preceding 2020.

They will spend $135 billion on AI this year, up from $72 billion last year.

Quote:

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Meta is preparing to cut thousands of jobs as early as next month, with deeper layoffs expected later this year, according to a report.

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JUST IN: Meta reportedly planning massive layoffs this year, with first round expected to cut 8,000 employees in May.

— Polymarket (@Polymarket) April 17, 2026

https://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/meta-plans-major-layoffs-next-month-more-cuts-expected-report

Downsizing via radiation?!

Quarky ….

If their salaries are $200k each it's still a drop in the bucket compared to their investment in AI. AI is the bubble that will burst soon enough.

txyaloo said:

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Maybe they should fix their products?

People have left Facebook because they started forcing sponsored posts and unnatural engagement. Who wants to see a bunch of people on their feed they don't know? FB did the same thing to Instagram. Trying to curate some weird experience so they can force more advertising and mine more data on their users.

Doubling down on AI isn't the answer. They're too far behind their competition at this point. Why do I need MetaAI in Whatsapp?

I read a story this week saying Zuck is creating an AI avatar that is supposed to replace him in meetings.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/apr/13/meta-ai-mark-zuckerberg-staff-talk-to-the-boss

Quote:

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The rationale behind the project, according to the Financial Times, is that employees could feel more connected to one of the most powerful people in Silicon Valley.

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I don't know a single person that would feel connected to an AI avatar of a real person. Most think it's extremely creepy.

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Will his AI avatar be legless like the ones in the Metaverse that creeped everyone out?

Just go ahead and fire everyone, deploy your famed AI agents that you claim will do everything and be done with it.

Go ahead. Make my day. I challenge you to fire everyone and replace them with AI. Go ahead.

Kenneth_2003 said:

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I have to wonder if their offices are anywhere near as extravagantly lazy and non-productive as we saw when Elon got into Twitter

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I wonder what Meta people actually do. Their main products Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram hardly have changed in many years. So many emps making so much money.

WTF do they do?>

txyaloo said:

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Maybe they should fix their products?

People have left Facebook because they started forcing sponsored posts and unnatural engagement. Who wants to see a bunch of people on their feed they don't know? FB did the same thing to Instagram. Trying to curate some weird experience so they can force more advertising and mine more data on their users.

Doubling down on AI isn't the answer. They're too far behind their competition at this point. Why do I need MetaAI in Whatsapp?

I read a story this week saying Zuck is creating an AI avatar that is supposed to replace him in meetings.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/apr/13/meta-ai-mark-zuckerberg-staff-talk-to-the-boss

Quote:

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The rationale behind the project, according to the Financial Times, is that employees could feel more connected to one of the most powerful people in Silicon Valley.

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I don't know a single person that would feel connected to an AI avatar of a real person. Most think it's extremely creepy.

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You make many good points that I agree with.

I think FB's time has passed. It came up in 2007 or so and was an amazing idea. I found many of my highschool classmates from decades earlier and even connected with some old flames and crushes of mine! People used to post tons of vacation pics, now I don't see that anymore. Most of my friends on it don't even post anything, I rarely see any posts by people. Also, now the kids have grown up and they don't want to hang out where their parents are. So neither of my teen and post teen kids are on FB. Never were. FB is for "old people". They are on snapchat and IG.

FB is good for the groups. I am in many, like one on "Ghost Signs". There's a chap who posts scenes from 1920s movies and goes to the exact location today in 2026 and shows what it looks like. I love that.

AI is overblown. Only old non-STEM Boomers who were in something like sales think it will take over the world. Part of it is wishful thinking, they WANT it to take over so they can make more money even at the cost of destruction of society.

Companies have no option now. Either double down on AI or lose stock value. Even Zuck knows he is barking up the wrong tree, he isn't a fool.

And yes, as you say these avatars are creepy. I may be too old to appreciate them but give me nature any day. I don't want to live in a fake metaverse ever.

Why does a website require that many employees?

I am 62. I start on Monday to build hyperscale AI data centers. My retirement lasted a few months. They can't get Gen Z to work. I got so many calls.

Edit, I don't need a "Safe space".

They should focus on regular people and rename it MetaMucil.

Facebook is older than 2007. It has its origins as a social media platform on college campuses in the early 2000s

Urban Country Boy said:

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I am 62. I start on Monday to build hyperscale AI data centers. My retirement lasted a few months. They can't get Gen Z to work. I got so many calls.

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Is your company publicly traded?

General Jack D. Ripper said:

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Why does a website require that many employees?

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It didn't, but I'd be very surprised if, with every mass hire-and-fire, stock wasn't trading to profit the higher-ups at the company and anyone else who trades, knowing they'll make money when those things happen.

Urban Country Boy said:

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I am 62. I start on Monday to build hyperscale AI data centers. My retirement lasted a few months. They can't get Gen Z to work. I got so many calls.

Edit, I don't need a "Safe space".

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This. Facebook is just the first biggest product. Their real investment and income is through datacenter and cloud. Just like Amazon is AWS and Google is, well, Google Cloud.

They're selling services and AI integration into it.

Burdizzo said:

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Facebook is older than 2007. It has its origins as a social media platform on college campuses in the early 2000s

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Yes, I know but it started to catch on in 2007 or just prior. At least that was when I got on it.

I even remember how it happened, I was in the library studying for an exam and corresponding with an Aggie former classmate and we were discussing our kids and he said send me some pics. I asked if I should email them. He said no, put them on Facebook. I asked WTF was "Facebook". Then he told me but I didn't want to sign up to another website but eventually I did a couple of days later.

Urban Country Boy said:

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I am 62. I start on Monday to build hyperscale AI data centers. My retirement lasted a few months. They can't get Gen Z to work. I got so many calls.

Edit, I don't need a "Safe space".

---

I am skeptical everytime an older person says "these kids today are lazy". I have kids of that age and nothing is different from my generation, some are extremely hard work, some are lazy. I can see the struggles of my son who is graduating and he is very hard working. He's just interviewed with Google (3rd round onsite) and I am hoping, praying an begging God that he gets it. They hire so many Indian H1Bs, why can't they hire more American kids? He has another offer but Google is the better one. I am sure this was the case among the Boomers and all other gens.

What is different is after decades of selling opportunities to foreign countries in exchange for a few dollars, kids in America have lost hope. They think opportunity is overseas. This problem became noticeable with my generation, in the early 2000s when this accelerated in my field (high tech).

Trump better keep deporting illegals so these displaced workers at least have a fallback job opportunity in food, hospitality, or lawn services.

Facebook and Instagram both are totally infested with AI generated crap.

Anything in either place that is more than two paragraphs long and is not from a someone you know to be real is AI now.

They even combine interests. I've seen Jimmy Page, David Gilmour and even an aggie player doing stuff like "saving a soon to be closed animal shelter".

And who hasn't seen all of the "One Last Ride" tours that are "anounced" with AI generated posters featuring Robert Plant and the like.

Urban Country Boy said:

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I am 62. I start on Monday to build hyperscale AI data centers. My retirement lasted a few months. They can't get Gen Z to work. I got so many calls.

Edit, I don't need a "Safe space".

---

I hear you. I turned down so many amazing opportunities because of my experience…but also couldn't find the folks that buy into the team concept and willing to work their butts off for the team.

IG is just weird now. I might see one post from a friend per day. Other than that, it's AI, sponsored crap, and memes. The memes are funny and about the only thing that gets me on there when I just want a chuckle. Other than that, it's a 100% useless app.

infinity ag said:

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Urban Country Boy said:

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I am 62. I start on Monday to build hyperscale AI data centers. My retirement lasted a few months. They can't get Gen Z to work. I got so many calls.

Edit, I don't need a "Safe space".

---

I am skeptical everytime an older person says "these kids today are lazy". I have kids of that age and nothing is different from my generation, some are extremely hard work, some are lazy. I can see the struggles of my son who is graduating and he is very hard working. He's just interviewed with Google (3rd round onsite) and I am hoping, praying an begging God that he gets it. They hire so many Indian H1Bs, why can't they hire more American kids? He has another offer but Google is the better one. I am sure this was the case among the Boomers and all other gens.

What is different is after decades of selling opportunities to foreign countries in exchange for a few dollars, kids in America have lost hope. They think opportunity is overseas. This problem became noticeable with my generation, in the early 2000s when this accelerated in my field (high tech).

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Did not to mean everyone. There are hard workers. I have been in charge of many. I always appreciate the "smart" ones. I have had both sides of that. One of the smartest ones I had went to work for Meta.

Logos Stick said:

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Urban Country Boy said:

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I am 62. I start on Monday to build hyperscale AI data centers. My retirement lasted a few months. They can't get Gen Z to work. I got so many calls.

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Is your company publicly traded?

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No. The company I worked for building data centers in Europe does not even have a website. No signs on the buildings we built.

While on the subject, we are doing water cooling direct to the chip. Closed loop. So if anyone says data centers use so much water. No. We have fixed that.

Urban Country Boy said:

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Logos Stick said:

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Urban Country Boy said:

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I am 62. I start on Monday to build hyperscale AI data centers. My retirement lasted a few months. They can't get Gen Z to work. I got so many calls.

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Is your company publicly traded?

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No. The company I worked for building data centers in Europe does not even have a website. No signs on the buildings we built.

While on the subject, we are doing water cooling direct to the chip. Closed loop. So if anyone says data centers use so much water. No. We have fixed that.

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I mean it's all relative. What do you do with the heat you rejected from the chip? Gotta cool the building somehow. You can do it without water sure. But you can reject more heat cheaper by using a water source. It's just a cost and benefits thing.

Decay said:

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Urban Country Boy said:

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Logos Stick said:

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Urban Country Boy said:

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I am 62. I start on Monday to build hyperscale AI data centers. My retirement lasted a few months. They can't get Gen Z to work. I got so many calls.

---

Is your company publicly traded?

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No. The company I worked for building data centers in Europe does not even have a website. No signs on the buildings we built.

While on the subject, we are doing water cooling direct to the chip. Closed loop. So if anyone says data centers use so much water. No. We have fixed that.

---

I mean it's all relative. What do you do with the heat you rejected from the chip? Gotta cool the building somehow. You can do it without water sure. But you can reject more heat cheaper by using a water source. It's just a cost and benefits thing.

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We use water in two loops. One loop is treated water that goes through the racks, that are now 50kw or more. Then this goes through a heat exchanger to a water loop that goes through an air-cooled chiller. No evaporative cooling towers. A 50 story high rise uses about 50 gpm or more for make up water for cooling towers. The new data centers are not designing evaporative cooling.

infinity ag said:

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Urban Country Boy said:

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I am 62. I start on Monday to build hyperscale AI data centers. My retirement lasted a few months. They can't get Gen Z to work. I got so many calls.

Edit, I don't need a "Safe space".

---

I am skeptical everytime an older person says "these kids today are lazy". I have kids of that age and nothing is different from my generation, some are extremely hard work, some are lazy. I can see the struggles of my son who is graduating and he is very hard working. He's just interviewed with Google (3rd round onsite) and I am hoping, praying an begging God that he gets it. They hire so many Indian H1Bs, why can't they hire more American kids? He has another offer but Google is the better one. I am sure this was the case among the Boomers and all other gens.

What is different is after decades of selling opportunities to foreign countries in exchange for a few dollars, kids in America have lost hope. They think opportunity is overseas. This problem became noticeable with my generation, in the early 2000s when this accelerated in my field (high tech).

---

My experience is "it's the team" not "the individual". IMO one of the BIG problems with the entire social media environment is it's all individual based importance.

When did you first start seeing data centers move to 415/480V? Had a customer just finish building a 208V DC and now we are telling them new requirements for liquid cooled GPU compute requires 415/480.

YouBet said:

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IG is just weird now. I might see one post from a friend per day. Other than that, it's AI, sponsored crap, and memes. The memes are funny and about the only thing that gets me on there when I just want a chuckle. Other than that, it's a 100% useless app.

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My Insta feed is all women with great racks cooking a recipe. Their algorithm is pretty good at determining a person's interests.

Urban Ag said:

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Trump better keep deporting illegals so these displaced workers at least have a fallback job opportunity in food, hospitality, or lawn services.

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Except he just doubled the H2 quota so they and he can pay lower wages in those fields.

Urban Country Boy said:

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Logos Stick said:

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Urban Country Boy said:

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I am 62. I start on Monday to build hyperscale AI data centers. My retirement lasted a few months. They can't get Gen Z to work. I got so many calls.

---

Is your company publicly traded?

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No. The company I worked for building data centers in Europe does not even have a website. No signs on the buildings we built.

While on the subject, we are doing water cooling direct to the chip. Closed loop. So if anyone says data centers use so much water. No. We have fixed that.

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Thanks. I've been moving money from software to hardware/electrical/data centers/power/cooling/construction ... so always looking for opportunities. With AI, software is becoming commoditized, especially the eco system surrounding the major players.

combustion artist said:

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When did you first start seeing data centers move to 415/480V? Had a customer just finish building a 208V DC and now we are telling them new requirements for liquid cooled GPU compute requires 415/480.

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480 V has been around for a while in data centers in the US. We got out of the 208 V. 400 V/50 Hz. has been native to Europe.

bonfarr said:

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YouBet said:

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IG is just weird now. I might see one post from a friend per day. Other than that, it's AI, sponsored crap, and memes. The memes are funny and about the only thing that gets me on there when I just want a chuckle. Other than that, it's a 100% useless app.

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My Insta feed is all women with great racks cooking a recipe. Their algorithm is pretty good at determining a person's interests.

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Facebook does that for me. They tempt you with big boobs to check if you are gay or not. If you click you get flooded with big boobs everyday.