Meta is planning to roll out the first phase of major layoffs on May 20, with additional cuts expected later in the year.
The Facebook and Instagram parent is set to cut around 10% of its global workforce – roughly 8,000 employees – in the initial round, Reuters quoted sources as saying.
Further layoffs are being considered for the second half of the year, though specifics such as timing and scale remain undecided. Executives may tweak these plans depending on how artificial intelligence capabilities evolve, the report stated.
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Heavy investment in AI worth hundreds of billions of dollars
CEO Mark Zuckerberg is investing heavily in AI, committing hundreds of billions of dollars as part of a broader effort to reshape the company around the technology – a trend seen across major US tech firms this year.
Amazon.com has cut 30,000 corporate jobs in recent months, nearly 10% of its white-collar workforce, while fintech firm Block slashed nearly half its staff in February.
In both cases, executives linked the reductions to efficiency gains driven by AI.
According to Layoffs.fyi, 73,212 tech workers have lost their jobs so far this year, compared to 153,000 in all of 2024.
These cuts would mark Meta’s largest since its late-2022 and early-2023 restructuring, dubbed the “year of efficiency,” when it eliminated about 21,000 roles. At the time, the company was grappling with declining stock and overestimated COVID-era growth.
Increased reliance on AI-assisted work
This time, Meta is on stronger financial footing, but leadership is aiming for a leaner structure with fewer management layers and increased reliance on AI-assisted work.
Meta’s shares are up 3.68% year-to-date, though still below their peak from last summer. In 2024, the company generated over $200 billion in revenue and $60 billion in profit despite heavy AI spending.
As of December 31, Meta had nearly 79,000 employees, according to its latest filing.
Recently, the company has reorganized teams within its Reality Labs division and moved engineers into a new “Applied AI” unit focused on building AI agents capable of coding and handling complex tasks autonomously.
Some employees are also expected to be reassigned to Meta Small Business, a unit launched last month as part of the restructuring, the report added.