Meta cuts 8,000 jobs for AI
- Meta told employees on April 23 it will cut about 10% of its workforce, or roughly 8,000 jobs, with layoffs set to begin May 20 as the company pours more money into artificial intelligence. - The company also canceled plans to fill 6,000 open roles, according to an internal memo from Chief People Officer Janelle Gale that Bloomberg reported and Meta confirmed to other outlets. - The cuts come as Meta plans about $135 billion in 2026 AI spending, up from $72 billion last year, while Reuters reported more layoffs could follow later this year. (nbcnews.com)
Meta told employees on April 23 that it will cut about 8,000 jobs, or 10% of its workforce, with the layoffs starting May 20. (cnbc.com) The Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp parent also scrapped plans to hire for 6,000 open roles, according to a memo sent by Chief People Officer Janelle Gale and first reported by Bloomberg. Meta confirmed the memo’s contents to multiple outlets. (bloomberg.com) (nbcnews.com) Gale told employees the cuts were part of an effort to “run the company more efficiently” and to offset other investments Meta is making. NBC News reported the memo did not explicitly mention artificial intelligence in that line, but the company’s broader spending plans did. (nbcnews.com) Those spending plans are large. NBC News reported Meta aimed to nearly double AI spending in 2026 to about $135 billion, up from $72 billion last year. (nbcnews.com) Meta has been reshaping teams for months as Mark Zuckerberg tries to catch up with OpenAI, Google and Anthropic in generative artificial intelligence. CNBC reported that Meta had already cut about 1,000 Reality Labs jobs in January and made additional reductions in March across Facebook, sales, global operations and other units. (cnbc.com) The company said in its latest annual report that it had 78,865 employees at the end of 2025, down from 86,482 at the end of 2022. That means this new round removes roughly one in 10 remaining workers after earlier retrenchment. (cnbc.com) Reuters reported on April 17 that May 20 would be only the first wave, with additional cuts possible later in 2026. One source told Reuters the broader plan could eventually exceed 20% of the company, though Meta’s confirmed memo covered the 10% round announced this week. (usnews.com) (forbes.com) The move lands in a wider tech cost-cutting cycle tied to AI infrastructure. NBC News said analysts see Meta, Microsoft and Amazon trimming headcount while spending billions on data centers and other systems needed to train and run AI models. (nbcnews.com) For Meta employees, the immediate date is May 20. For Zuckerberg, the message is that the company is treating AI spending as the center of the business, even when that means cutting thousands of jobs to pay for it. (cnbc.com)
