Meta announces 10% staff reduction to fund $115bn AI expansion
Meta announced on Thursday it plans to lay off roughly 10% of its workforce, or about 8 000 people – the latest in a string of tech industry redundancies fuelled in part by artificial intelligence.
The company is also closing around 6 000 open roles, Janelle Gale, Meta's chief people officer, wrote in a memo published by Bloomberg that Meta confirmed to CNN.
The cuts will take effect on 20 May.
"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.
Meta, like other tech giants, has been on an aggressive AI spending spree. The company spent $72.2 billion on capital expenditures in 2025 – costs related to data centres and other AI infrastructure. That figure is expected to climb to at least $115 billion in 2026, Meta said in its January earnings report.
The company has also been splurging on talent for its superintelligence lab and has acquired buzzy AI start-ups such as Moltbook and Manus as part of its ongoing efforts to compete with OpenAI and others.
Meta (META) shares were down more than 2% on Thursday afternoon.
More and more companies have trimmed their workforces over the past year, pointing to what they describe as AI's ability to improve efficiency. Amazon said in January it would lay off 16 000 workers – its second large-scale round of redundancies in three months – emphasising the need for efficiency. And fintech firm Block's announcement in February that it would cut 40% of its workforce (more than 4 000 people) came with a stark warning that more companies would follow suit.
Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg hinted at the start of this year that the company, which has invested heavily in AI, could see workforce changes because of the technology. On Meta's January earnings call, he called 2026 "the year that AI starts to dramatically change the way that we work".
"We're starting to see projects that used to require big teams now be accomplished by a single very talented person," Zuckerberg said.
Meta said it will offer affected US employees 16 weeks of base pay along with two weeks for every year of employment, adding that international packages will be similar.
Like many big tech companies, Meta eliminated tens of thousands of jobs in 2022 and 2023 – reductions largely attributed to right-sizing after the Covid-era spikes in usage and hiring. Last year, the company said it would cut about 5% of what it called its "lowest performers", although it planned to backfill many of those roles.
Market sentiment
Investor reaction to Meta's announcement has been cautiously negative, with shares falling more than 2% on the day of the news. The broader market is watching the tech sector closely for signs of a wider trend.
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