The technology sector entered 2026 with an unprecedented gap between two processes: aggressive workforce reductions and record investments in artificial intelligence. According to Layoffs.fyi, the industry has already lost more than 124,000 jobs in the first few months of the current year. For comparison: about 122,000 employees were laid off during the entire previous year, 2025. This means that the pace of personnel optimization at the beginning of the new year has already exceeded the results of the previous period.
Who is cutting and who is building
The leaders in the number of laid-off employees were industry giants — Oracle, Amazon, and Dell. Each of these corporations announced massive layoffs affecting thousands of workers. The blow hit not only corporate giants but also representatives of the mid-market segment, including Workday, GitLab, and Robinhood. The layoff epidemic is particularly felt in the industry headquarters: in California alone, more than 16,000 jobs in the technology sector have been eliminated since the beginning of the year.
The paradox of the situation lies in the fact that layoffs are happening in parallel with unprecedented investment growth. Companies are redirecting resources to the construction of data centers, the purchase of powerful AI accelerators, and the integration of neural networks into products. Oracle plans to invest about $90 billion in AI development in the next financial year alone. Amazon is also continuing to increase capital expenditures, investing tens and hundreds of billions into the corresponding infrastructure.
Causes and consequences: myths and reality
The technology companies themselves are not in a hurry to link layoffs exclusively to the implementation of robots and algorithms. Official statements cite other reasons: the need to correct mistakes of excessive hiring during the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing optimization of organizational structures. Nevertheless, the impact of AI on the labor market remains a central point of discussion.
A PricewaterhouseCoopers study, based on data from six continents, offers a more complex view of the situation. Experts note that in the long term, artificial intelligence may not only displace employees but also create new jobs. Statistics show that companies that are most actively implementing AI, on average, continue to hire personnel faster than organizations that automate business processes less actively.
San Francisco as an indicator
A vivid example of this duality is San Francisco — the world center of the artificial intelligence industry. Despite massive layoffs in the technology sector, the unemployment rate in the city dropped to 3.7% this year. This growth in employment is largely due to continued hiring by AI leaders such as OpenAI and Anthropic, which are actively expanding their teams amidst global optimization in other sectors.
