More bad news. Across the tech industry, workers are watching as stock prices balloon and AI startups soar to monster valuations while employers are simultaneously cutting head count due to the rapidly emerging power of AI. So far in 2026, there have been almost 110,000 layoffs at 137 tech companies, according to Layoffs.fyi, after roughly 125,000 cuts all last year.At the current pace, cuts could approach the peak in 2023, when there were more than 260,000 layoffs, as many software and digital media companies rightsized following the Covid hiring boom. Replaced by machines’Umesh Ramakrishnan, chief strategy officer at executive search firm Kingsley Gate, said the current trend of AI taking jobs is hard for workers, but welcomed by investors.“It’s easy to tell somebody, ‘Hey, listen, I made a mistake by hiring more people than I should have,’” Ramakrishnan said. “Now the world understands that jobs are being replaced by machines, and if you’re not doing that, shareholders are getting upset.”Cisco is the latest tech giant to make such an announcement, telling investors alongside quarterly earnings last week that it was eliminating fewer than 4,000 jobs.“The companies that will win in the AI era will be those with focus, urgency, and the discipline to continuously shift investment toward the areas where demand and long-term value creation are strongest,” Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins wrote in a blog post, titled “Our path forward.”Cisco shares popped more than 13% on Thursday, their best day since 2011, after the company reported better-than-expected results and lifted its AI infrastructure guidance. Wall Street still isn’t sold on Meta’s story, but that’s mostly because the company’s AI strategy has been scattered and remains largely in flux. The stock is down about 7% so far this year and almost 5% over the past 12 months, underperforming all of its megacap peers other than Microsoft.Whatever anxiety investors are experiencing, the feelings inside the company are more intense, with some longtime staffers questioning Meta’s AI pursuits under AI chief Alexandr Wang, while also weighing if now is the time to leave for opportunities at other companies in the AI race, according to current and former employees.Data aggregated by Blind, an anonymous professional network that requires users to verify their employment with a work email address, reveals some of the internal malaise.Meta’s overall rating by employees on Blind has declined 25% from a peak in the second quarter of 2024 to the current period, with a 39% drop in its culture rating. In every category other than compensation, Meta has seen a ratings decline and dramatically underperforms rivals Amazon, Google and Netflix, the Blind data reveals.The company’s full-court press with AI included the recent debut of an employee tracking tool intended to collect data from staffers’ actions, such as mouse movements and keystrokes on their work computers. The Model Capability Initiative, or MCI, as it’s called, is part of Meta’s efforts to train AI models to power digital agents that can perform various coding and white-collar tasks.Employees have characterized the data tracking tool as “dystopian,” according to messages viewed by CNBC, with some workers expressing fear that personal information could be leaked. Some Meta workers have noted that their workplace computers appear slower since the company initiated the project, adding to their frustration, sources said.Meta workers responded by creating an online petition that urges Zuckerberg and leadership to shutter the project.“Collecting and repurposing this kind of data raises serious concerns around privacy, consent, and trust in the workplace,” the petition says. “It should not be the norm that companies of any size are permitted to exploit their employees by nonconsensually extracting their data for the purposes of AI training.”Leo Boussioux, an assistant professor of information systems at the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business, described Meta as one of many companies currently overhauling its workforce and operations to accommodate “the fact that AI is changing the way we work.”Boussioux said one goal could be to increase fear or pressure, using AI-related threats and layoffs as a “form of weapon to enable a culture change.” But, he said, it could also reflect “poor management that does not know how to enable this in a more comfortable way for the employees.”CNBC
Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone On Saturday, May 16, 2026, 1:32 PM, Dick Williams <[email protected]> wrote: I also give tens of thousands to charity. Much of it to teachers on X. (Twitter) There’s a rather large group of teachers who post their Amazon wishlist which I have been donating to going on 3 years now. @SenateTim for those who think I’m lying. BlueSky too. @senatetim.bluesky.social I also give thousands to local animal charities. Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone On Saturday, May 16, 2026, 1:22 PM, Dick Williams <[email protected]> wrote: I invest my profits in worldwide travel. Iceland & Norway soon. Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone On Saturday, May 16, 2026, 9:20 AM, Michael Watkins <[email protected]> wrote: You're the odd bird that thrives on disapproval, i.e. a troll. Ask yourself: Does their disapproval make me feel superior? Why do I waste my time on these a-holes and that idiot Darren? Time to invest your Nvidia profits in a shrink before your mind depreciates even more. -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Dick Williams Sent: Friday, May 15, 2026 11:29 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Dick CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the Texas Comptroller's email system. DO NOT click links or open attachments unless you expect them from the sender and know the content is safe. Amazing how the a holes here can call me names without the idiot Darren saying anything. But no doubt this posting will be met with his usual reaction for me. On Friday, May 15, 2026, 1:15 PM, Michael Watkins <[email protected]> wrote: Nature, nurture or Dick by choice? -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Tony Newman Sent: Friday, May 15, 2026 12:11 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Dick CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the Texas Comptroller's email system. DO NOT click links or open attachments unless you expect them from the sender and know the content is safe. Dick by name, Dick by nature! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
