Meta sent layoff emails at 4 a.m. today, moving to cut about 8,000 jobs as Mark Zuckerberg presses ahead with the company’s AI push.
- Meta sent out layoff notices to around 8,000 employees, about 10% of its staff, in several waves.
- Meta is shifting close to 7,000 employees into AI jobs and is getting rid of some management layers, according to an internal document.
- Meta is now expecting capital expenditures of $125 billion to $145 billion in 2026, mostly going to AI infrastructure.
Meta Platforms started sending layoff notices to staff on Wednesday, beginning in Singapore at 4 a.m. and continuing across time zones. The Facebook and Instagram parent is axing about 8,000 jobs worldwide. Workers in the U.S., Britain and other places were told to work from home as the company sent out the emails.
Meta’s latest layoffs come as CEO Mark Zuckerberg pushes deeper into AI. The company posted $56.31 billion in Q1 revenue, a 33% jump from last year. Meta also raised its 2026 capital spending outlook to as high as $145 billion, planning to increase data-center and AI infrastructure outlays.
Meta isn’t only cutting jobs. A memo reviewed by Reuters said the company is shifting 7,000 staff into AI workflow projects and shutting 6,000 job openings. Management roles are also going away, so between layoffs and transfers, around a fifth of Meta’s workforce is affected. The new setup puts AI agents — software that can do tasks with little human help — in the spotlight.
Meta’s Chief People Officer Janelle Gale told employees in a memo that a lot of teams can now operate with “a flatter structure with smaller teams of pods/cohorts.” “We believe this will make us more productive and make the work more rewarding,” Gale wrote in the memo. The Straits Times
Business Insider said the layoff notices went out in three waves, each at 4 a.m. local time. U.S. staff who are laid off will get 16 weeks of base pay plus two more weeks for every year worked, and 18 months of health care, according to an internal document viewed by Business Insider.
Meta workers in Ireland are among those hit by new job cuts, with RTE saying staff there got notices about how they will be affected. The cuts are part of a 8,000 global reduction plan. Meta’s Irish arm has served as a main hub for its operations outside the U.S.
Some Meta engineers who were reassigned are headed to newer teams, The Guardian wrote Tuesday. One team works on AI cloud infrastructure, while another is building an internal AI agent named Hatch. In an internal message, Peter Hoose, Meta’s vice-president of production engineering, said, “the pace of what we are building is unprecedented.” The Guardian
Competition is clear. Meta is working to keep up with Alphabet’s Google and OpenAI. Reuters has said other big U.S. firms like Amazon and Block have also linked layoffs or cost cuts to AI. But Meta stands out for scale: it’s combining big internal moves with a spending plan much larger than what it’s saving on jobs.
Meta workers are upset about both layoffs and a workplace data tool. Over 1,000 staff signed a petition against software tracking mouse moves and keystrokes, Reuters said, citing employee concerns it is used for AI training. The Guardian reported the same tool tracks mouse movements and keystrokes. A Meta spokesperson told the Guardian there are safeguards and the data is restricted to this use.
Meta shares traded at $602.61 before the U.S. market opened, off 1.4% from the last close. The slip is modest for a company worth more than $1.5 trillion. Investors are still deciding if job cuts can balance a capital cycle that could last years.
The big concern is that job cuts may hit morale before AI gains can boost productivity. Evercore analysts say the layoffs could save Meta about $3 billion, according to The Straits Times. That’s not much compared to the company’s expected 2026 capital spending that could reach $145 billion, or the extra AI infrastructure costs Meta still sees before the decade wraps up.
Meta did not give Reuters a comment on the May 20 plan. The cuts are coming while the company is in strong financial shape, not trouble, sending a clear signal: Meta wants fewer managers, more AI work, and fewer roles for people not building the new projects.
