Two Bay Area tech powerhouses announced sweeping job cuts this week, adding thousands of positions to the growing toll of 2026‘s tech layoff wave — even as both companies report strong financial results. Cisco, headquartered in San Jose, is cutting approximately 4,000 employees worldwide — about 5% of its roughly 86,000-person workforce — as part of a push toward AI, security, and silicon-based products.
The move came alongside a blockbuster earnings report: the company posted record revenue of $15.8 billion for Q3 fiscal 2026, a 12% year-over-year increase. In a memo to staff, CEO Chuck Robbins framed the cuts as a necessary pivot.
“The companies that will win in the AI era will be those with focus, urgency, and the discipline to continuously shift investment toward the areas where demand and long-term value creation are strongest,” Robbins wrote. “This means making hard decisions — about where we invest, how we’re organized, and how our cost structure reflects the opportunity in front of us.”
Cisco has taken $5.3 billion in AI infrastructure orders from hyperscalers so far this fiscal year and raised its full-year order expectation to $9 billion, up from $5 billion previously. This is the latest in a series of cuts at Cisco, which laid off thousands during two separate rounds in 2024 and cut over 150 jobs in 2025. Cisco’s stock surged 15% on the news.
Separately, Sunnyvale-based LinkedIn announced it would trim roughly 5% of its workforce. CEO Daniel Shapero disclosed the cuts in an internal memo, with reductions hitting engineering, product, and marketing teams. The cuts come as LinkedIn revenue rose 12% in the most recent quarter, and sources told Reuters the rationale was not AI replacing jobs, but reorganizing teams around growth areas.
According to Layoffs.fyi, more than 103,000 tech workers have lost their jobs globally in 2026 so far, approaching the total for all of 2025.
