Meta Platforms Slashes Jobs and Hikes VR Prices Amid AI Push

Meta Platforms ( (META) ) has been popular among investors this week. Here is a recap of the key news on this stock.

Meta Platforms is preparing a major restructuring, with an initial layoff round in May expected to cut about 10% of its global workforce, or roughly 8,000 jobs. Unlike the post-pandemic cuts of 2022–23, the company is not under financial duress; instead, it is streamlining operations and leaning more heavily on AI-driven workflows to boost efficiency and margins.

These job reductions come as Meta Platforms pours billions into AI infrastructure, raising investor concerns about rising capital expenditures and pressure on free cash flow. Analysts such as Ivan Feinseth argue that Meta’s strong balance sheet, cash reserves, and profitability give it room to “build aggressively while remaining financially secure,” framing the spending as a long-term competitive play rather than a risk to stability.

Wall Street remains broadly bullish on Meta Platforms, with a Strong Buy consensus based on dozens of Buy ratings and relatively few Holds. Feinseth’s $945 price target implies about 37% upside, while the broader analyst community sees roughly 24%–35% potential gains, leaving Meta positioned as one of the more attractive Magnificent 7 names for investors seeking AI-driven growth.

TD Cowen’s John Blackledge also maintains a Buy rating and $820 target ahead of Meta Platforms’ Q1 2026 earnings on April 29, expecting revenue and operating income to slightly beat consensus as AI-powered recommendations lift engagement and ad performance. However, he cautions that heavier AI infrastructure spending could weigh on operating margins, making future guidance on 2026 capex and expenses a key catalyst for the stock.

In hardware, Meta Platforms is raising prices on its Quest 3 and 3S VR headsets, citing a global surge in memory-chip costs that is squeezing consumer electronics margins. The 128GB Quest 3S will jump from $299 to $349, the 256GB model from $399 to $449, and the 512GB Quest 3 from $499 to $599, signaling management’s willingness to protect hardware economics even as VR remains a smaller piece of the overall business.

The price hikes underscore how Meta Platforms is repositioning its legacy Metaverse-related products within a broader AI-first strategy, as VR headsets stand out as one of the few clearly monetizable outputs from its now-wound-down Metaverse push. For investors, the story is increasingly about whether Meta can convert heavy AI and infrastructure investment into sustained ad growth and new product monetization while maintaining the financial discipline that underpins today’s bullish targets.