U.S. technology giants laid off nearly 140,000 people during the year, the four major giants 'AI capital expenditures reached US$725 billion

On July 25, the Financial Times, in conjunction with Challenger, Gray and Christmas data, reported that layoffs in the U.S. technology industry have accounted for more than one-third of the total announced layoffs in the United States since 2026. Amazon, Oracle, Meta and Microsoft alone have laid off nearly 50,000 people, accounting for about 6% of the total number of employees. In sharp contrast, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft are expected to invest as much as US$725 billion in AI infrastructure such as data centers this year. Oracle lost 21,000 employees throughout the year after layoffs in March, and was downgraded by Standard & Poor's this month on the grounds of weak cash flow and uncertain AI returns. Microsoft abolished 4800 positions this month, mainly in the Xbox games division, essentially a complete reset of the $75 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard three years ago.