How much is Meta's deal with Nebius?

Meta signed a $27 billion AI infrastructure agreement with Nebius Group, split into $12B dedicated compute and $15B backstop capacity over 5 years.

How many jobs is Meta cutting?

Reports indicate Meta plans to cut approximately 20% of its workforce, roughly 15,800 positions, the largest reduction since the 2022-2023 restructuring.

What is Nebius Group?

Nebius is an Amsterdam-based AI infrastructure company, formerly part of Yandex (Russia's largest search engine). It provides cloud computing and AI compute services.

Why did Meta stock rise after layoff news?

Markets viewed the workforce reduction as cost optimization that would improve margins, combined with the aggressive AI infrastructure investment signaling long-term growth.

How much is Meta spending on AI total?

Meta plans $115-135 billion in total AI infrastructure spending, making it one of the largest AI investors globally.

How much is Meta's deal with Nebius?

Meta signed a $27 billion AI infrastructure agreement with Nebius Group, split into $12B dedicated compute and $15B backstop capacity over 5 years.

How many jobs is Meta cutting?

Reports indicate Meta plans to cut approximately 20% of its workforce, roughly 15,800 positions, the largest reduction since the 2022-2023 restructuring.

What is Nebius Group?

Nebius is an Amsterdam-based AI infrastructure company, formerly part of Yandex (Russia's largest search engine). It provides cloud computing and AI compute services.

Why did Meta stock rise after layoff news?

Markets viewed the workforce reduction as cost optimization that would improve margins, combined with the aggressive AI infrastructure investment signaling long-term growth.

How much is Meta spending on AI total?

Meta plans $115-135 billion in total AI infrastructure spending, making it one of the largest AI investors globally.

technology

Meta Signs $27B Nebius AI Deal, Plans 20% Layoffs

Meta seals a $27 billion AI infrastructure deal with Nebius while planning to cut 20% of its workforce — roughly 15,800 jobs — as AI reshapes the company from inside out.

$27B Deal-20% WorkforceNVIDIA Vera Rubin

Published March 27, 2026

$27B

Nebius deal total value

~15,800

Jobs to be eliminated

$115-135B

Total AI infra spend 2026

+4.2%

Stock rise on announcement

Key Takeaways

Meta signed a $27 billion agreement with Nebius — $12 billion in compute services plus a $15 billion backstop guarantee — its largest single AI infrastructure deal to date.
The deal centers on NVIDIA's next-generation Vera Rubin GPU platform, positioning Meta at the forefront of AI compute capacity.
Simultaneously, Meta plans to cut roughly 20% of its workforce — about 15,800 employees — across Reality Labs, Facebook app, and sales teams.
Wall Street responded positively: Meta stock rose over 4% as investors backed the dual strategy of aggressive AI investment paired with operational restructuring.
Nebius, an ex-Yandex spinoff, becomes one of the largest AI cloud infrastructure providers overnight through this single partnership.

Meta AI infrastructure announcement visual — Photo: PYMNTS/Shutterstock

Inside Meta's $27 Billion Nebius AI Deal

Meta's agreement with Nebius represents a massive bet on AI infrastructure dominance. The $27 billion total breaks down into two components: $12 billion for direct compute services powered by NVIDIA's Vera Rubin platform, and a $15 billion backstop guarantee that essentially locks in long-term capacity. Nebius — formerly the international arm of Russian search giant Yandex before its restructuring in 2024 — has rapidly positioned itself as a serious challenger in the AI cloud space. The company operates GPU clusters across Europe and the Middle East, offering an alternative to hyperscalers like AWS and Google Cloud for AI-specific workloads. For Meta, this deal supplements its own in-house data center buildout. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has committed to spending between $115 billion and $135 billion on AI infrastructure in 2026 alone, making Meta one of the world's largest AI spenders alongside Microsoft and Google.

Deal Structure: Compute vs. Backstop

	Compute Services ($12B)	Backstop Guarantee ($15B)
Purpose	Direct GPU compute access	Capacity lock-in guarantee
Hardware	NVIDIA Vera Rubin GPUs	Reserved future allocation
Timeline	Immediate deployment	Multi-year commitment
Risk profile	Operational spend	Strategic insurance

Nebius AI deal coverage from financial media — Photo: Yahoo Finance/Reuters

The Other Side: 20% Workforce Reduction

While Meta pours billions into AI hardware, it simultaneously plans to shed approximately 15,800 employees — roughly 20% of its nearly 79,000-person workforce. The cuts target three major areas: Reality Labs (the metaverse division), the core Facebook app team, and sales operations. According to CNBC, Meta has already begun notifying affected employees in waves. Reality Labs, which has burned through over $50 billion since 2020 with limited consumer traction, faces the deepest percentage cuts. The Facebook app team — once the company's core — is being streamlined as engagement metrics increasingly favor Instagram and Threads. The layoffs follow a pattern set by Meta's 2023 "Year of Efficiency" cuts but at a significantly larger scale. Analysts note the timing is strategic: pairing job cuts with a blockbuster AI deal gave investors a narrative of disciplined capital reallocation rather than pure cost-cutting.

Where the Cuts Are Landing

Reality Labs

Deepest cuts — metaverse division lost $16B in 2025 alone with unclear consumer adoption path

Facebook App

Core team streamlined as user engagement shifts toward Instagram and Threads platforms

Sales & Marketing

AI-powered ad targeting reduces need for large human sales operations across regions

AI Reallocation

Freed budget redirected to AI research, Llama model training, and GPU infrastructure

We're making these changes so we can put more energy and resources into the areas that matter most — AI research, infrastructure, and the products that billions of people use every day.

Timeline of Events

March 24, 2026

CNBC reports Meta planning sweeping layoffs

Sources reveal Meta will cut approximately 20% of its workforce across Reality Labs, Facebook, and sales divisions. → If you own Meta stock, this signals a fundamental pivot — the company is trading headcount for GPU capacity at an unprecedented scale.

March 25, 2026

Nebius $27B deal announced

Meta confirms the largest single AI infrastructure agreement in its history — $12B compute plus $15B backstop with ex-Yandex spinoff Nebius. → For context, this single deal exceeds the entire annual revenue of most AI startups combined.

March 25, 2026

Meta stock pops over 4%

Markets respond favorably to the dual announcement — layoffs plus AI investment seen as disciplined capital allocation strategy. → If you held 100 shares of META at $550, your portfolio gained roughly $2,300 in a single session.

March 26, 2026

Employee notifications begin in waves

Reality Labs employees receive first round of notifications. Severance packages reportedly include 4 months base pay plus health coverage. → For the roughly 15,800 affected workers, the immediate priority is securing new positions in a tech job market that's increasingly favoring AI specialists.

Big Tech AI Spending Race

Meta's $115-135B AI budget for 2026 puts it in direct competition with Microsoft ($80B+), Google ($75B+), and Amazon ($100B+). The Nebius deal alone represents more than the entire GDP of some small nations.

Who Is Nebius? From Yandex to AI Cloud Giant

Nebius emerged from the 2024 restructuring of Yandex, Russia's dominant search engine. When Yandex's international operations were separated from its Russian business, Nebius inherited the company's world-class AI and machine learning expertise along with significant GPU infrastructure across Europe. The company quickly pivoted to become a dedicated AI cloud provider, offering GPU-as-a-service optimized for large language model training and inference. Their facilities in Finland and the Middle East provide geographic diversity that appeals to enterprise clients concerned about data sovereignty. The Meta deal catapults Nebius from a relatively unknown player into one of the world's largest AI infrastructure companies virtually overnight. Industry analysts estimate the deal will generate over $3 billion in annual recurring revenue for Nebius, potentially making it profitable within 18 months.