Meta is planning significant layoffs, potentially affecting 20% or more of its workforce, as part of a drive for greater efficiency and to offset costs from major AI infrastructure investments. The plans have been signaled to senior leaders, though the final scale and timing are not yet set.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg is aggressively focusing the company on generative AI, investing heavily in data centers and recruiting top researchers with large compensation packages. He has stated that AI is already enabling smaller teams to accomplish tasks that previously required larger groups.
The potential layoffs reflect a broader trend in the tech industry, where companies like Amazon and Block are also cutting jobs while citing AI's ability to improve productivity with smaller teams. Meta's AI push follows setbacks with previous models, as it works to reassert its standing in the field.
Main Topics: Planned layoffs at Meta, investment in AI infrastructure and talent, AI-driven efficiency gains, industry-wide trend of job cuts linked to AI.
Meta is planning sweeping layoffs that could affect 20% âor more of the company, three sources âfamiliar with the matter told Reuters, as Meta seeks to offset costly artificial intelligence âinfrastructure bets and prepare for greater efficiency brought about by AI-assisted workers.
No date has been set for the cuts and the magnitude has not been finalized, the people said.
Top executives have recently signaled the plans to other senior leaders at Meta and told them âto begin planning how â to â pare back, two of the people said. The sources spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to disclose the cuts.
Meta did not immediately comment.
If âMeta settles on the 20% figure, the layoffs will be the company's most significant since a restructuring in late 2022 and âearly 2023 that it dubbed the "year of efficiency." It employed nearly 79,000 people as of December 31, according to its latest filing.
The company laid off 11,000 staffers in November 2022, or around 13% of its workforce at the âtime. Around four months later, it announced it was cutting another 10,000 â jobs.
Zuckerberg focussing on Generative AI
Over the last year, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been pushing Meta to compete âmore forcefully in âgenerative AI. The company has offered huge pay packages, some worth hundreds of millions of â dollars over four years, to court top AI researchers to a new âsuperintelligence team.
The company has said it plans to invest $600 billion to build data âcenters by 2028. Earlier this week, it acquired Moltbook, a social networking platform built for AI agents. Meta is also spending at least $2 billion to buy Chinese AI startup Manus, Reuters previously reported.
Zuckerberg has alluded to efficiency gains from the investments, saying in January he was starting to see "projects that used to require big teams now be accomplished by a single very talented person."
Meta's plans reflect a broader pattern among major U.S. companies, particularly in tech, this âyear. Executives have pointed to recent improvements in AI systems as one reason for the changes.
In January, Amazon confirmed it would cut some 16,000 jobs, amounting to nearly 10% of its âworkforce. Last month, âthe fintech company Block chopped nearly â half of its staff, with CEO Jack Dorsey explicitly pointing to AI tools and their growing capability to help companies do more with smaller teams.
Meta's planned AI investments follow a series of setbacks with its Llama 4 âmodels last year, including criticism that it provided misleading results on the benchmarks it used for early versions. It abandoned the release of the largest version of that model, called Behemoth, which had been due out in the summer.
The superintelligence team has been working to reassert the company's standing this year by building a new model called Avocado, but the performance of that model has also lagged expectations.
No date has been set for the cuts and the magnitude has not been finalized, the people said.
Top executives have recently signaled the plans to other senior leaders at Meta and told them âto begin planning how â to â pare back, two of the people said. The sources spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to disclose the cuts.
Meta did not immediately comment.
If âMeta settles on the 20% figure, the layoffs will be the company's most significant since a restructuring in late 2022 and âearly 2023 that it dubbed the "year of efficiency." It employed nearly 79,000 people as of December 31, according to its latest filing.
The company laid off 11,000 staffers in November 2022, or around 13% of its workforce at the âtime. Around four months later, it announced it was cutting another 10,000 â jobs.
Zuckerberg focussing on Generative AI
Over the last year, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been pushing Meta to compete âmore forcefully in âgenerative AI. The company has offered huge pay packages, some worth hundreds of millions of â dollars over four years, to court top AI researchers to a new âsuperintelligence team.
The company has said it plans to invest $600 billion to build data âcenters by 2028. Earlier this week, it acquired Moltbook, a social networking platform built for AI agents. Meta is also spending at least $2 billion to buy Chinese AI startup Manus, Reuters previously reported.
Zuckerberg has alluded to efficiency gains from the investments, saying in January he was starting to see "projects that used to require big teams now be accomplished by a single very talented person."
Meta's plans reflect a broader pattern among major U.S. companies, particularly in tech, this âyear. Executives have pointed to recent improvements in AI systems as one reason for the changes.
In January, Amazon confirmed it would cut some 16,000 jobs, amounting to nearly 10% of its âworkforce. Last month, âthe fintech company Block chopped nearly â half of its staff, with CEO Jack Dorsey explicitly pointing to AI tools and their growing capability to help companies do more with smaller teams.
Meta's planned AI investments follow a series of setbacks with its Llama 4 âmodels last year, including criticism that it provided misleading results on the benchmarks it used for early versions. It abandoned the release of the largest version of that model, called Behemoth, which had been due out in the summer.
The superintelligence team has been working to reassert the company's standing this year by building a new model called Avocado, but the performance of that model has also lagged expectations.
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