- The global tech industry is undergoing an unprecedented "structural reshuffle." According to the latest statistics from the global tech layoff tracking database Layoffs.fyi, as of June this year, nearly 122,000 people have been laid off in the global tech industry, involving more than 202 tech companies. This figure almost matches the entire year of 2025, which saw 124,600 layoffs. At the current pace, the total number of layoffs this year is likely to surpass the historical high set in 2023.
- Career consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas further noted that the number of tech layoffs in May this year hit a multi-year high, with "AI leading to reduced manpower demand" becoming the most common reason cited in company announcements.
- Unlike the "panic layoffs" triggered by over-hiring post-pandemic and a cooling capital market in 2022–2023, this year's wave of layoffs is occurring against a backdrop of record-high corporate revenues and abundant cash flow. Over 200 multinational tech giants, including Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Meta, Cisco, IBM, Dell, and Salesforce, have initiated layoffs even as they see rapid growth in profits and cloud business.
According to reports from Layoffs.fyi, TechCrunch, and other foreign media, the essence of these layoffs is a "cage change for birds"; cutting back on repetitive roles such as back-office, customer service, HR, data labeling, traditional software development, and mid-level management, while fully reallocating resources to large model development, AI infrastructure, chip design, agents, and data center construction.
Salesforce's CEO bluntly stated, "AI Agents can handle these tasks, and the company doesn't need as many people."
Executives from Atlassian, Amazon, and Meta have also publicly stated that AI is fundamentally changing the talent structure required by companies.
Since the beginning of this year, the layoff plans of tech giants have been directly linked to AI strategies. Oracle disclosed in its annual report ending in May that its total number of employees decreased from 162,000 to 141,000 over the past year, a reduction of 13%, and admitted that the deployment of AI technology led to workforce reductions, saving funds to reinvest in AI data centers.
Cloudflare laid off about 20% of its workforce in the quarter with a 34% year-over-year revenue increase, focusing on finance, legal, and mid-level management.
Cisco also laid off nearly 4,000 people while exceeding profit expectations, reallocating resources to chips, optical communications, and AI security fields.
