Meta cuts roughly 10% of staff

Meta told employees on April 23 that it will cut about 10% of its workforce, or roughly 8,000 jobs, with layoffs starting May 20. (cnbc.com) (npr.org) The cuts were described in an internal memo from Chief People Officer Janelle Gale, and Meta also said it will stop hiring for 6,000 open roles it had planned to fill. (cnbc.com) (bloomberg.com) Meta said the layoffs are part of an effort to “run the company more efficiently” and to offset other investments it is making, according to the memo cited by NPR and OPB. (npr.org) (opb.org) Those other investments are centered on artificial intelligence. CNBC reported the company is ramping up AI spending, while MarketWatch said Meta expects to spend as much as $135 billion on AI this year. (cnbc.com) (morningstar.com) The layoffs are not coming from a company in immediate financial distress. Yahoo Finance, citing Meta’s results, said the company posted record quarterly revenue of $59.89 billion and net income of $22.77 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025. (finance.yahoo.com) Meta employed 78,865 people at the end of 2025, according to company disclosures cited by USA Today, which is why a 10% cut works out to about 8,000 workers. (usatoday.com) This is Meta’s biggest workforce reduction since 2023. NPR and Variety both noted that Meta cut 11,000 jobs in November 2022 and another 10,000 in March 2023. (npr.org) (variety.com) The May 20 layoffs show Meta returning to the same efficiency language it used three years ago, but this time with AI spending at the center of the restructuring. (bloomberg.com) (cnbc.com)