Analysis: Tech giants use the name of AI transformation to trigger a wave of layoffs, actually hedging against $650 billion in AI investment pressure According to a report by BBC on March 30th, according to TechFlow, Meta、 Amazon, Google, Pinterest, Atlassian and other tech giants have recently announced plans to lay off employees. Unlike the usual rhetoric of "improving efficiency and reducing costs" and "having too many management levels", this round of layoffs generally points the finger at the advancement of AI technology. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that 2026 will be the year when AI profoundly changes the way work is done. The company laid off 700 employees just last week, and its AI spending plan nearly doubled during the same period. Jack Dorsey, CEO of Block, was even more straightforward when announcing the layoff of nearly half of the employees, stating, "A smaller team can do more and better with the tools we are building." However, the industry has questioned this. Terence Rohan, a technology investor, pointed out that attributing layoffs to AI's "ability to write better announcements" also made the management "less like the bad guys who cut people purely for cost cutting". But he also admitted that 25% to 75% of the company code in his portfolio has been generated by AI, and AI's substantive impact on software engineers and other posts cannot be ignored. The other layer of driving logic is more direct: Amazon Meta、 Google and Microsoft plan to invest a total of $650 billion in AI this year, as high capital expenditure pressures force companies to turn to salary costs for hedging. Ann Hawker, a partner at Bain&Company, said that layoffs are also a signal of "financial discipline" to investors - "Perhaps the money saved from layoffs cannot fill the big hole, but creating some cash flow is always helpful