Meta is preparing to cut approximately 20% of its employees, according to a Reuters report citing three people with knowledge of the plans. While a final number and timeline are not set, company leadership has reportedly instructed managers to begin drafting layoff lists.
The move signals a strategic shift as the company doubles down on artificial intelligence. Internal rationale suggests that new AI agents are making certain roles redundant, while the immense cost of building AI infrastructure necessitates savings elsewhere. A Meta spokesperson declined to comment.
Under Mark Zuckerberg, the company has engaged in a high-stakes race for AI talent and technology. This included a $14.3 billion acquisition to bring on Scale AI's co-founder and offers of nine-figure signing bonuses to top researchers. The company is also constructing a dedicated "superintelligence" team with the long-term goal of achieving artificial general intelligence.
Yet these enormous expenditures have yielded few tangible products for users. "Meta has been spending aggressively, from hiring sprees to data centers, but we haven't seen a major public breakthrough," said CNET's Katelyn Chedraoui. She pointed to the delayed launch of its new foundational model, internally called Avocado, as one example. This follows earlier struggles with the Llama 4 model series and legal challenges surrounding its AI-powered smart glasses.
The reported cuts would be the largest since Meta eliminated 21,000 positions in 2022-2023, before its full pivot to proprietary AI development. They place Meta among other tech giants, including Amazon and Atlassian, which have also cited AI efficiency as a reason for workforce reductions. Zuckerberg recently told investors he now sees projects that "used to require big teams" being handled by a single expert.
Despite the potential cuts, Meta's financial commitment to AI continues to grow. The company recently acquired the social platform Moltbook and is finalizing a $2 billion deal for Chinese startup Manus. It still intends to spend $600 billion on data centers by 2028, suggesting this restructuring is less a retreat and more a reallocation of resources for an AI-dominated future.
Source: CNET