Nearly 8,000 Meta employees face job cuts starting May 20 as the company redirects resources toward artificial intelligence infrastructure. The initial wave represents about 10% of Meta's global workforce, with additional layoffs expected in the second half of the year according to Reuters sources, though timing and scope remain unclear.
The Facebook and Instagram owner plans to begin its latest restructuring on May 20, according to a Reuters report citing three sources familiar with the plans, targeting roughly 8,000 positions in what insiders describe as a broader reorganization stretching through 2026.
Meta's current profitability makes these cuts different from previous rounds. The company generated more than $200 billion in revenue last year with approximately $60 billion in profit, and its stock has rebounded significantly.
These reductions focus on offsetting rising AI infrastructure expenses rather than addressing financial distress.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg has invested billions into artificial intelligence as Meta pivots toward the technology. The company has reorganized teams within its Reality Labs division and moved engineers into a new Applied AI group focused on developing agents capable of writing code and performing complex tasks.
This marks Meta's largest restructuring since 2022 and early 2023, when the company laid off 11,000 workers followed by another 10,000 job cuts months later.
"A speculative report about theoretical approaches."
A Meta spokesperson previously described earlier Reuters reporting about potential cuts with that phrase. The tech sector has already seen more than 70,000 layoffs this year according to publicly tracked data, with Amazon among other major companies announcing job reductions linked to AI developments.
