Meta cuts 8,000 jobs

Meta Platforms began notifying employees on Wednesday, May 20, that it was cutting about 8,000 jobs worldwide, launching a layoff round the company had tied to a broader restructuring and heavier spending on artificial intelligence. Reuters reported on April 17 that the first wave would begin on May 20 and affect about 10% of Meta’s global workforce, citing three people familiar with the plans. Meta had 77,986 employees as of March 31, according to its first-quarter earnings release. The cuts come as Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg pushes deeper into AI infrastructure and new product development. Meta said on April 29 that first-quarter capital expenditures were $19.84 billion, while Zuckerberg told investors the company had “strong momentum across our apps” and said Meta was “on track to deliver personal superintelligence to billions of people.” Bloomberg reported this week that the layoffs began in Singapore before moving across time zones. (money.usnews.com) ### When did Meta signal these cuts were coming? Reuters reported on April 17 that Meta planned a first wave of layoffs for May 20, with additional cuts possible later in 2026. One source told Reuters the initial round would eliminate close to 8,000 jobs. (investor.atmeta.com) March 31 is the latest date for Meta’s disclosed headcount. The company said in its April 29 earnings release that it had 77,986 employees at the end of the first quarter, up 1% from a year earlier. ### Where did the layoffs start, and who was hit first? (money.usnews.com) Singapore was among the first hubs to receive notices on Wednesday, according to Bloomberg reporting carried by regional outlets. The Business Times said employees in Singapore got notices at 4 a.m. local time, with Europe and the United States expected to follow in their own time zones. (investor.atmeta.com) Engineering and product teams were expected to be hit particularly hard, according to people familiar with the plans cited by Bloomberg. Staff were also encouraged to work from home while notifications were sent out. ### How big is Meta’s AI spending push? (businesstimes.com.sg) Meta raised the scale of its AI buildout well before the layoffs began. On February 24, the company announced a multi-year agreement with AMD to power its AI infrastructure with up to 6 gigawatts of AMD Instinct GPUs. Lisa Su, AMD’s chief executive, said the partnership would support “one of the industry’s largest AI deployments.” (businesstimes.com.sg) April 28 brought another marker of that buildout. Meta said it had broken ground on 10 data centers in the prior 24 months as it expanded “AI-optimized facilities” to handle AI workloads and other technologies. ### What has Meta said publicly about the strategy? Mark Zuckerberg said in Meta’s first-quarter results that the company had released its first model from Meta Superintelligence Labs and was pursuing “personal superintelligence.” That statement put AI at the center of Meta’s product and infrastructure agenda. (about.fb.com 1) (about.fb.com 2) Meta’s own infrastructure posts have described the same priority in operational terms. The company said its data centers support products ranging from Meta AI to Ray-Ban Meta glasses, and that some facilities house infrastructure used to train AI models. ### What comes next after this first wave? (investor.atmeta.com) Reuters reported that more layoffs could come later in 2026, though timing and scope were not yet clear. That means Wednesday’s cuts may not be the last workforce reduction this year. (about.fb.com) The second half of 2026 is the next concrete milestone in Meta’s AI expansion. Meta said shipments supporting the first GPU deployments under its AMD agreement will begin then, tying the company’s infrastructure buildout to a named partner and a dated next step. (about.fb.com) (money.usnews.com)