Meta told staff Thursday it plans to lay off roughly 8,000 people, or around 10% of the company, two sources confirmed to Axios. Why it matters: The cuts come as Meta looks to offset rising AI infrastructure costs. Zoom out: Meta's capital expenditures have ballooned in recent years, sparking investor concerns that excessive AI spending will eat into profits.In January, the company said it expects capex to soar by at least 60% this year compared with 2025, "driven by increased investment to support our Meta Superintelligence Labs efforts and core business."Free cash flow, meanwhile, is expected to plunge 83% year over year.Reality check: Meta is no stranger to large-scale cuts. Layoffs affecting more than 20,000 workers jump-started Meta's pivot to efficiency in 2022 and 2023.The big picture: Many Big Tech companies are eyeing layoffs as a way to appeal to investors in the AI era. Amazon said it would cut around 16,000 workers this year as part of a restructuring tied to its AI investments.Block, the parent company to Square, CashApp and Tidal, said it would cut around 4,000 — or half of its workforce.Salesforce announced roughly 1,000 cuts linked to AI automation. Snap Inc. also said it would cut around 1,000 jobs, representing around 16% of its workforce.Microsoft said Thursday it would offer buyouts to 7% of staff.What to watch: The news follows a report that Meta plans to record employees' keystrokes to gather data to train its AI models, improving their ability to mimic how humans interact with computers.