Meta plans massive cuts
Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta is preparing its biggest layoffs in company history — more than 15,000 roles — as leadership recalibrates AI investments and chases operational efficiency reported. The move echoes broader sector uncertainty about pace and profitability in AI — firms are shrinking teams even as they double down on machine intelligence.
Reuters reported that senior leaders have been told to start planning staff reductions that could affect "20% or more" of Meta's workforce. finance.yahoo.com Meta employed nearly 79,000 people as of December 31, 2025, according to its filings. finance.yahoo.com The company told investors it expects 2026 capital expenditures of $115–$135 billion to build AI infrastructure and support its Meta Superintelligence Labs. investor.atmeta.com Meta previously committed to invest more than $600 billion in U.S. infrastructure and jobs through 2028 as part of its AI and data-center buildout. finance.yahoo.com The New York Times reported that Meta has delayed its next "frontier" AI model, code-named Avocado, to at least May after internal tests showed it trailing top rivals, and that executives have discussed temporarily licensing Google’s Gemini. nytimes.com If enacted at the reported scale, the cuts would exceed the roughly 21,000 jobs Meta eliminated across 2022–2023 during its earlier "year of efficiency" rounds (about 11,000 in November 2022 and another 10,000 in 2023). techcrunch.com Meta spokesperson Andy Stone called the media reports "speculative reporting about theoretical approaches," and Reuters noted no date or final magnitude has been set for any reductions. finance.yahoo.com
