Snap cuts 1,000 jobs

Snap said on April 15 it will cut about 1,000 jobs and close more than 300 open roles as it reorganizes around smaller teams and artificial intelligence tools. (newsroom.snap.com) Chief Executive Evan Spiegel told employees the cuts equal 16% of Snap’s full-time workforce. He said the company expects the restructuring to trim its annualized cost base by more than $500 million by the second half of 2026. (newsroom.snap.com) Spiegel tied the layoffs directly to artificial intelligence in his memo. He said newer tools are reducing repetitive work and helping small teams move faster on Snapchat+, ad products and the lightweight Snap Lite app. (newsroom.snap.com) Snap entered 2026 in better financial shape than a year earlier, but still short of sustained profitability. The company reported $5.93 billion in 2025 revenue, a $460 million net loss, and $689 million in adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. (investor.snap.com) In the fourth quarter alone, Snap posted $1.716 billion in revenue and $45 million in net income. Spiegel said in February that those results reflected a “strategic pivot toward profitable growth” and tighter financial discipline. (investor.snap.com) The company’s own explanation for the cuts goes beyond a standard slowdown. Spiegel said artificial intelligence is now changing how much work each team can handle, and CNBC reported Snap told investors its internal artificial intelligence agents already generate more than 65% of new code and answer more than 1 million queries a month. (newsroom.snap.com) (cnbc.com) The layoffs also land two weeks after activist investor Irenic Capital went public with a campaign for sharper cost cuts and heavier artificial intelligence monetization. Irenic said on March 31 that it held an economic interest in about 2.5% of Snap’s Class A shares and argued the company needed to improve its cost structure. (businesswire.com) Markets initially welcomed the move. Snap shares rose about 7% on April 15 after the announcement, according to CNBC. (cnbc.com) For employees, the terms were concrete. Snap said U.S.-based workers who lose their jobs will get four months of severance, healthcare coverage, equity vesting, and career transition support, while staff outside the United States will go through local legal processes. (newsroom.snap.com) Snap framed the cuts as part of building a “faster, stronger, and more durable” company. The immediate test is whether fewer people and more artificial intelligence can turn a social media business with 946 million monthly active users into one that delivers steady net-income profit. (newsroom.snap.com) (investor.snap.com)