Meta reduced its annual distribution of stock options by about 5% for ​most of ⁠its staff, as CEO Mark Zuckerberg ploughs billions of ‌dollars into its artificial intelligence goals, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.

The ​Facebook parent declined to comment.

Meta and other Big Tech companies are ​competing to ​outbuild each other with massive data centers to get ahead in Silicon Valley's heated AI race. The social media ⁠company said in January that it expected capital expenditure for 2026 to be between $115 billion and $135 billion.

Meta has slashed equity-based awards for the bulk of its employees for the second ​year ‌in a row, ⁠the report ⁠said, citing people familiar with the matter.

Last year, the company had ​cut the stock award by roughly 10%, ‌which shocked some staff at the ⁠time, the FT report said.

Meta last month laid off about 10% of employees within its Reality Labs group, which had about 15,000 workers, as the company redirects resources from some of its virtual reality products to wearables.

The unit — which has accumulated more than $70 billion in losses since 2021 — includes Meta's ambitious "metaverse" bet. Meta is building several ‌gigawatt-scale data centers across the United States, including one ⁠in rural Louisiana, a project President Donald ​Trump said would cost $50 billion. Last month, Meta appointed Trump ally Dina Powell McCormick as president and vice chairman in ​a bid ‌to drive partnerships with governments and investors for ⁠its AI projects.

(Reporting by ​Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona)