Meta Q1 Revenue Jumps 33% to $56.3B, Plans 8,000 Layoffs
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- Meta reported Q1 2026 revenue of $56.3B (up 33% YoY) and net income of $26.8B (up 61%, $10.44/share), beating analyst estimates of $55.45B revenue and $6.79 EPS
- Meta told employees it will lay off ~8,000 staffers (~10% of workforce) in May and close 6,000 open roles to "offset" its massive AI investments
- Meta raised 2026 capital spending guidance to $125-145B (from $115-135B), citing higher component pricing and additional data center costs to support future-year capacity
- Meta's daily active users across its apps averaged 3.56B for March 2026, up 4% YoY, with the slight sequential decline attributed to internet disruptions in Iran and WhatsApp restrictions in Russia
- The European Commission preliminarily found Meta's Instagram and Facebook in breach of the EU's Digital Services Act for failing to diligently protect minors under 13
- Meta released its first model from Meta Superintelligence Labs, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg saying the company is "on track to deliver personal superintelligence to billions"
Why it matters: Meta is raising capex to $125-145B while cutting roughly 10% of its workforce — a clear reallocation from human headcount to AI infrastructure that the company itself frames as an efficiency move. With EU regulators escalating DSA action and DAU growth softening due to geopolitical disruptions in Iran and Russia, Meta's revenue engine is running hot but faces fresh legal and platform-access headwinds.
