AI Giants Meta, Google, Broadcom Slash Jobs Despite Record Profits, Analysts Point to Automation

The AI Paradox: Profitable Companies Cutting Staff

In a seemingly contradictory trend, technology giants benefiting from the artificial intelligence boom are simultaneously announcing significant workforce reductions, according to recent reports. Meta reportedly eliminated 600 employees from its Meta Superintelligence Labs group this week, while Google is reducing management layers and Broadcom has implemented recent cuts as well.

The AI Paradox: Profitable Companies Cutting Staff
AI Success Driving Job Cuts, Not Failure
From Research to Productization
Industry-Wide Pattern Emerging
The Cruising Altitude Analogy

These developments occur despite these companies experiencing substantial growth and profitability from AI-related services, creating what analysts describe as a fundamental restructuring of how technology companies operate.

AI Success Driving Job Cuts, Not Failure

According to Brad Gastwirth, global head of research and market intelligence at Circular Technology, the Meta cuts represent “a perfect example of AI working too well not failing.” Sources indicate these aren’t demand-driven layoffs but rather the result of massive internal restructuring as AI changes the technology sector’s cost structure.

This assessment appears supported by reports from Business Insider’s Jyoti Mann, who revealed that Meta executive Michel Port recently informed some employees that their positions were being replaced by new automated processes.

From Research to Productization

Analysts suggest the Meta job cuts primarily reflect consolidation and reprioritization within the company‘s AI operations. Meta reportedly maintains hundreds of separate AI initiatives spanning Llama, infrastructure, content moderation, recommendation systems, and ad optimization.

“The 600 jobs being cut are largely from overlapping research or support teams as Meta shifts from ‘AI research mode’ to ‘AI productization mode,'” Gastwirth explained, according to his analysis. “Once the models are trained and deployed, you simply don’t need the same headcount to maintain that velocity, especially when internal tools are now automating much of the work engineers used to do manually.”

Industry-Wide Pattern Emerging

This trend appears to extend beyond Meta to other major players in the AI space. Companies including Google, Microsoft, and Broadcom are demonstrating similar patterns—investing billions in infrastructure while reducing human layers displaced by those very systems.

“It’s not layoffs because business is bad,” analysts suggest. “It’s because AI is doing exactly what it promised: automating middle-tier technical and operational roles.”

The current AI boom is creating what industry observers describe as a paradoxical situation where the technology’s success directly contributes to workforce reductions in certain segments, even as companies report record profits and expansion in other areas.

The Cruising Altitude Analogy

Gastwirth offered an aviation metaphor to explain the phenomenon: “Think of it like the moment after an airplane reaches cruising altitude: you need fewer hands in the cockpit. The heavy lift training, data labeling, model architecture is done. Now the focus is on efficiency, inference, and monetization.”

This shift suggests that technology companies like Broadcom and others are entering a new phase where the initial intensive development work gives way to optimization and commercialization, requiring different staffing models than the research-heavy approach that characterized the early stages of the AI revolution.