AI capital spending and AI-cited layoffs, by company
What 7 of the largest AI spenders say they will invest in AI infrastructure, quoted from their own filings and earnings calls, next to the layoffs at the same companies where AI was cited. 5 of the 7 appear in the tracker, with at least 78,900 job cuts with exact counts. Figures checked 21 Oct 2026.
Figures are shown exactly as each company stated them and are not added together: they cover different periods, fiscal years and definitions of capital spending. A company appearing here with a layoff entry does not mean the spending caused the cuts; the entry's own label says how its source linked the cuts to AI.
Company by company
Amazon
approximately $220 billion in cash capex
Calendar 2026 · Guidance · Company-wide cash capital expenditures for 2026, raised from about $200 billion, which Amazon had said was 'the majority of which to support AI and AWS'. The Q2 2026 release says the year-over-year increase in purchases of property and equipment 'primarily reflects investments in artificial intelligence'.
“We now believe we will spend approximately $220 billion in cash capex in 2026, with the higher cost of memory pushing this number up from our prior estimate of about $200 billion.”
Amazon cut about 16,000 corporate roles citing fewer layers and less bureaucracy; the cuts follow CEO Andy Jassy's 2025 memo that generative AI would reduce the corporate workforce, and outlets framed the round as part of that AI-driven shrinkage.
Attribution: strong · AI does the work
14,000
Amazon cut ~14,000 corporate roles; SVP Beth Galetti's memo said 'this generation of AI is the most transformative technology we've seen since the Internet' and that the company must be organized more leanly with fewer layers.
Attribution: explicit
Alphabet
$195–205 billion
Calendar 2026 · Guidance · Full-year 2026 capital expenditures, raised from $180–190 billion; the vast majority is technical infrastructure (servers, data centres, networking). Q2 2026 capex was $44.9 billion.
“CapEx was $44.9 billion in the second quarter, with the vast majority of the spend in technical infrastructure to support our investments in AI.”
Cut more than 100 design roles in its cloud unit; CNBC reports the layoffs come as Google accelerates cuts to focus spending on AI infrastructure. Google did not comment.
Attribution: strong · Cuts fund AI
Microsoft
approximately $175 billion
Calendar 2026 · Guidance · Calendar-year 2026 capital expenditures including finance leases. Restated from roughly $190 billion (April 2026) after Microsoft extended data-centre useful lives, which moves future data-centre leases from finance to operating leases; the company says its investment plan is unchanged. FY26 Q4 capex was $41 billion.
“Roughly two thirds of our capex was for short-lived assets, primarily CPUs and GPUs as customers increasingly build solutions that leverage both AI and non-AI infrastructure.”
Cut about 4,800 roles (2.1% of workforce, mostly Xbox and commercial sales); Chief People Officer Amy Coleman said the roles are not being replaced by AI but that 'AI is changing how work gets done' and some daily tasks can now be automated.
Attribution: explicit
9,000
Cutting about 9,000 jobs in a second major wave of layoffs as it seeks to control costs while ramping up AI spending, per Bloomberg; Microsoft itself cited removing management layers.
Attribution: strong · Cuts fund AI
6,000
Cut about 6,000 jobs (3%) to reduce management layers while under pressure to contain costs amid massive spending on AI data centers, per Bloomberg.
Attribution: strong · Cuts fund AI
Meta
approximately $130 billion to $145 billion
Calendar 2026 · Guidance · 2026 capital expenditures including principal payments on finance leases, narrowed from $125–145 billion. Q2 2026 capex was $31.1 billion.
“We anticipate making capital expenditures of approximately $130 billion to $145 billion in 2026 to support our AI efforts and core business.”
Meta announced ~8,000 cuts (10%) effective May 20 to 'offset the other investments we're making' as it raised AI capex to up to $145B; Zuckerberg's May memo framed the cuts around winning the AI race.
Attribution: strong · Cuts fund AI
Oracle
up to $95 billion
Fiscal 2027 (Jun 2026–May 2027) · Guidance · About $70 billion of Oracle's own capital spending plus $20–25 billion it expects customers to repay, per CFO Hilary Maxson on the Q4 FY2026 call as reported by Reuters. Fiscal 2026 capex was $55.7 billion, up from $21.2 billion, 'primarily due to the expansion of our data centers' (10-K).
“Most of the RPO increase in both Q3 and Q4 were large scale AI contracts where the customer prepaid Oracle for the purchase of the GPUs, or the customer bought and supplied the GPUs to Oracle.”
Began another round of layoffs (size undisclosed) days after raising its FY2026 restructuring budget by $700m; reporting frames the cuts as funding Oracle's AI data-center buildout, following 21,000 AI-linked reductions over the prior year.
Attribution: strong · Cuts fund AI
21,000
Oracle's fiscal-2026 10-K disclosed headcount fell to ~141,000 from ~162,000 (about 21,000, 13%) and stated that 'the adoption and deployment of AI technologies across our operations have resulted, and may continue to result, in reductions to our workforce'.
Attribution: explicit · AI does the work
CoreWeave
in the range of $35 billion to $39 billion
Calendar 2026 · Guidance · Full-year 2026 capital expenditures for AI cloud infrastructure (data-centre capacity delivered to customers). Q2 2026 capex was $9.4 billion.
“As a result of our increased expectations around capacity to be delivered to customers this year, as well as some of our significant recent wins, we now expect 2026 CapEx in the range of $35 billion to $39 billion. In a market where new capacity is supply constrained and costs are rising, AI cloud infrastructure in production is a scarce, valuable asset.”
Calendar 2026 · Guidance · Total 2026 capital expenditures, driven by AI initiatives (compute infrastructure and data centres), manufacturing and R&D lines, the company-operated AI-enabled fleet and the retail, service and charging footprint. First-half 2026 capex was $8.3 billion.
“We currently expect our capital expenditures to be in excess of $25 billion in 2026, driven by our AI initiatives, including investments in compute infrastructure and data centers, the expansion and ramp of our manufacturing and R&D production lines and facilities, and growth in our fleet of company-operated AI-enabled assets and our retail, service and charging footprint.”
Each figure comes from the company's own earnings release, filing or call, linked in the card, and is quoted as stated, including hedges such as "up to" or "approximately". Guidance is a plan, not spending that has happened.
Figures are not summed. Companies define capital expenditure differently (some include finance leases), report on different fiscal years, and do not all separate AI spending from the rest.
Layoff entries are the tracker's, matched by company name. "Cuts fund AI" means the source said the cuts free money or focus for AI; see the definitions.
Refreshed after each earnings season; changes are dated in the changelog.