Meta cuts 8,000 jobs for AI
- Meta told employees on April 23 it will cut about 8,000 jobs, or 10% of staff, starting May 20 as it pours more money into AI. - The company is also canceling plans to fill 6,000 open roles, after setting 2026 capital spending as high as $135 billion for AI infrastructure. - The cuts land as Meta expands AI products and a Nebius compute deal worth up to $27 billion. (cnbc.com)
Meta is cutting about 8,000 jobs, or 10% of its workforce, as it shifts harder into artificial intelligence. (cnbc.com) The cuts were disclosed to employees in a Thursday, April 23 memo, and they are set to begin on May 20. Meta is also abandoning plans to hire for 6,000 open roles. (cnbc.com) (cbsnews.com) Meta said in its latest annual report that it had 78,865 employees at the end of 2025. CNBC reported the company has already made smaller cuts this year in metaverse, sales, Facebook and Reality Labs teams. (cnbc.com) The spending on the other side of that tradeoff is enormous. CNBC reported Meta has said 2026 capital expenditures tied to AI could reach as much as $135 billion. (cnbc.com) Meta has been using that money to build both the plumbing and the products. On April 21, it announced a new AI-optimized data center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. (about.fb.com) On April 8, Meta said its new Muse Spark model would power a faster Meta AI assistant and roll out across WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, Messenger and its AI glasses in the following weeks. The company said the system can launch multiple “subagents” in parallel on a single task. (about.fb.com) Meta also tied AI more directly to its teen-safety products on April 23. Parents supervising Teen Accounts on Facebook, Messenger or Instagram can now see the topics their teens asked Meta AI about over the previous seven days in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and Brazil. (about.fb.com) The infrastructure push extends beyond Meta’s own campuses. Nebius said on March 16 that Meta signed a five-year AI infrastructure agreement worth up to about $27 billion. (nebius.com) (cnbc.com) Under that agreement, Nebius said it will provide $12 billion of dedicated capacity based on Nvidia Vera Rubin systems starting in early 2027, with Meta also committing to buy up to $15 billion of additional compute capacity. (nebius.com) Meta’s message is blunt: fewer people, fewer open jobs, and much more money going into chips, data centers and AI products. (cnbc.com)
