Meta just cut the annual stock awards it gives most employees by around 10% this year—even though its stock price is doing well. At Meta, these equity refreshers make up a big chunk of pay, right alongside salary and bonuses.
How much your stock award drops depends on your role and where you work. Higher-level folks or people in certain locations might see different cuts.
What’s wild is, while regular employees are getting less equity, Meta’s actually boosting performance bonuses for executives. In some cases, senior officers saw their bonus targets jump from 75% to 200% of their base pay.
Why’s all this happening? Simple: Meta is all-in on AI right now. The company’s spending tens of billions on new infrastructure, hiring top AI talent, and making big partnerships. This push toward AI is a huge deal for Mark Zuckerberg and the board—they want Meta to keep up with the other tech giants.
But that kind of investment isn’t cheap. Analysts say Meta’s rising AI expenses—like snagging the best people, building out data centers, and buying loads of computing power—are driving costs up. That’s a big reason why they’re trimming back in other spots."