Meta’s $145 Billion AI Gamble: Layoffs Cleared, Cloud Talks with Anthropic Heat Up
Published on 07/18/2026 at 17:06 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
Meta is simultaneously slashing its workforce, fending off a lawsuit over how those cuts were made, and pursuing one of the most ambitious capital spending plans in corporate history — a balancing act that came into sharper focus last week as a federal judge cleared the way for mass redundancies and news emerged of a potential $10 billion cloud-computing deal with rival Anthropic.
A U.S. district judge in Oakland rejected an emergency request from 26 former employees who had sought to block their dismissals, which are now set to take effect from July 22. The plaintiffs had alleged that Meta used AI-driven tools that measured productivity and token usage to single out workers with disabilities or those who had taken medical leave. Judge William Orrick ruled that the group had failed to demonstrate “irreparable harm” warranting an injunction, pushing the underlying accusations — that the company’s algorithms discriminated against protected leave-takers — to private arbitration. Meta has denied any wrongdoing, insisting that human managers made the final decisions behind the layoffs.
That legal backdrop underscores the human cost of a broader strategic pivot. In May, Meta cut roughly 8,000 employees, about 10% of its global workforce, reallocating resources toward artificial intelligence infrastructure and data centers. The company’s capital expenditure forecast for 2026 now stands at as much as $145 billion, nearly double the $72 billion spent the prior year. Chief Financial Officer Susan Li has said existing capacity is insufficient, and Meta plans to double its data-center footprint to 14 gigawatts by 2027.
To help fill that infrastructure, Meta is in talks with Anthropic about renting out excess compute capacity in a two-year deal worth $10 billion. Anthropic proposed the arrangement in June and would pay on a monthly basis, with both sides able to exit early. The sum is roughly one-third of the $45 billion, three-year agreement Anthropic signed with SpaceX in May. Mark Zuckerberg has acknowledged that companies ask almost weekly whether they can buy compute from Meta, and the company recently hired Dave Brown, a former Amazon Web Services senior manager, to build out what would essentially become a cloud business — putting Meta in direct competition with CoreWeave and Nebius, which Meta itself had previously contracted for capacity. Anthropic, meanwhile, is reportedly preparing an initial public offering in October 2026 and has already secured capacity with Google, SpaceX, Microsoft, Amazon, and through a 20-year data-center lease with TeraWulf.
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Meta is also pushing ahead with its own silicon. The in-house AI chip, codenamed “Iris,” will enter production in September in partnership with Broadcom and Taiwan Semiconductor. The effort aims to reduce reliance on external GPU suppliers and is complemented by a $9.1 billion data-center investment in Canada.
The market response to the flurry of news was muted. Meta’s shares closed at €565.10 on Friday, down 2.67% on the day amid a broad sell-off in technology stocks. The stock is off 3.62% over the past week but still up 14.53% over the last 30 days. It remains 16.63% below its 52-week high from last July.
Analysts remain divided. BMO Capital has described Meta as having “the least visible ROI story” among the large AI spenders and pointed to growing antitrust pressure. Zuckerberg himself has admitted that the development of AI agents is progressing more slowly than hoped. Wedbush analyst Ygal Arounian, however, rates Meta as “Outperform” in the hyperscaler space, though he did not assign a specific price target. The broader consensus calls for a “Moderate Buy” rating with a target of $830.45.
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Meta reports second-quarter earnings on July 29, having delivered a strong first quarter that saw revenue of $56.31 billion — up 33.1% year over year — and earnings per share of $10.44, well above the consensus estimate of $6.67. Investors will be watching closely to see whether the massive investment cycle, from chip production to a possible cloud partnership with Anthropic, is beginning to translate into tangible returns or remains, for now, a heavy cost burden.
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