Snap cuts about 1,000 jobs

Snap is cutting about 1,000 jobs, or 16 percent of its full-time staff, as the Snapchat parent says artificial intelligence now lets smaller teams do more. (newsroom.snap.com) Chief Executive Evan Spiegel announced the cuts on April 15, 2026, in a note to employees that also said Snap will close more than 300 open roles. The company had about 5,261 full-time employees at the end of December 2025. (newsroom.snap.com) (techcrunch.com) Spiegel said Snap expects the restructuring to cut its annualized cost base by more than $500 million by the second half of 2026. Snap also told U.S.-based departing employees they will get four months of severance, healthcare coverage, equity vesting, and career-transition support. (newsroom.snap.com) The company tied the layoffs directly to changes in how its work gets done. Spiegel said recent advances in artificial intelligence are reducing repetitive tasks, speeding up product work, and helping teams support advertisers and users with fewer people. (newsroom.snap.com) Snap gave investors a more concrete measure of that shift: it said artificial intelligence agents are already generating more than 65 percent of its new code and answering more than 1 million internal queries a month. The company said it is reorganizing around smaller, more focused teams as it pushes for profitability. (cnbc.com) The cuts also land after pressure from activist investor Irenic Capital Management, which disclosed an economic interest of about 2.5 percent in Snap and urged the company to make broader cost reductions. Reuters reported that Irenic had pushed for changes to improve performance weeks before the layoffs. (money.usnews.com) Snap’s stock rose on the news on April 15, even as the company’s shares remained down sharply for the year. CNBC reported the stock jumped about 7 percent in Wednesday trading, while Reuters said the shares had fallen about 31 percent so far in 2026 before the announcement. (cnbc.com) (money.usnews.com) The layoffs do not mean Snap is pulling back everywhere. Reuters reported the company is still investing heavily in its augmented reality glasses business, called Specs, and still plans to launch the product in 2026. (money.usnews.com) For Snap, the immediate result is a smaller payroll, fewer open jobs, and a faster push toward profit. For employees, the change started on April 15, when Spiegel told North America staff to work from home while the notices went out. (newsroom.snap.com)