Meta Will Lay Off 8,000 Employees as AI Focus Intensifies

In brief

• Meta plans to cut 10% of its workforce, or roughly 8,000 employees, according to the New York Times.
• The Facebook and Instagram parent company has pivoted strongly towards AI investment.
• Other tech firms have similarly announced large layoffs tied to the rise of AI tools.

Meta informed workers of sweeping layoffs Thursday, the New York Times reported, targeting roughly 8,000 employees—about 10% of its global workforce—while also eliminating 6,000 unfilled positions, as the Facebook and Instagram parent company funnels unprecedented resources into artificial intelligence development. The cuts were outlined in an internal memo from Janelle Gale, Meta’s chief people officer, who framed the reductions as a necessary trade-off to fund the company’s broader strategic ambitions. Meta confirmed the layoffs to the publication. “We’re doing this as part of our continued effort to run the company more efficiently and to allow us to offset the other investments we’re making,” Gale wrote. "This is not an easy trade-off and it will mean letting go of people who have made meaningful contributions to Meta during their time here.”

The announcement arrives as tech giants across Silicon Valley accelerate AI spending while simultaneously slimming their payrolls. Microsoft said Thursday it is offering buyouts to 7% of its workforce, and Block, the fintech company behind Square and Cash App, announced in February it was eliminating 40% of its employees, or over 4,000 roles. Both companies cited AI-driven efficiency gains as a central rationale.  At Meta, which employed more than 78,000 people at the end of 2025, the layoffs reflect CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s ongoing campaign to reshape the company around AI. Zuckerberg has publicly predicted that AI systems will eventually absorb much of the work currently performed by human engineers and other technical staff. The cuts are particularly notable given Meta’s financial trajectory. Revenue surged 24 percent in the fourth quarter of 2025, which Zuckerberg credited to AI-enhanced advertising tools. Yet the company is projecting capital expenditures of up to $135 billion this year—nearly double last year’s spending—largely directed toward AI infrastructure.

Affected U.S. employees will be notified May 20 and will receive severance packages including 16 weeks of base pay plus two additional weeks for each year of service. Meta’s stock price dipped more than 2% to finish the trading day around $659 per share.