Good morning, you're tuned in to Markets Desk.
Meta is moving fast on its AI restructuring, and the cost is significant. The company is beginning layoffs this week, with roughly eight thousand positions expected to be cut. Zuckerberg is making clear that headcount is being realigned around artificial intelligence priorities, and the workforce is absorbing a new and leaner reality inside one of tech's biggest names.
Shifting to Washington, the Trump administration is formalizing a dealmaking posture that goes well beyond tariffs. The president has outlined a strategy of taking equity stakes in companies, with Intel among the notable examples. It signals a more interventionist approach to industrial policy, one where the federal government positions itself as a direct stakeholder in corporate outcomes rather than a passive regulator.
And on the AI investment story more broadly, the picture on the ground is more complicated than the headline numbers suggest. Despite record levels of spending, nearly eight in ten organizations report that AI projects have either failed outright or remain stuck in early pilots. The gap between capital deployed and value delivered is becoming one of the defining tensions in corporate strategy right now.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
