Meta is planning massive layoffs that could affect 20 percent or more of the company's workforce amid huge investments in AI infrastructure and the company's desire to increase efficiency through AI-assisted staffing, The Guardian reports.
No date has been set for the layoffs, and the exact number of those to be laid off has not yet been finalized, three sources familiar with the situation told Reuters.
Meta management has asked other leaders in the company to start planning how they will cut staff, two of the sources said.
How many employees does Meta have?
If Meta settles for a 20% reduction in staff, those layoffs will be the largest in the company's history since restructuring in late 2022 and early 2023, which it has called the “year of efficiency.”
According to the latest financial report, on December 31 the company had almost 79,000 employees.
The company previously laid off 11,000 people in November 2022 (about 13% of its workforce) and cut another 10,000 jobs four months later.
Mark Zuckerberg's plans
CEO Mark Zuckerberg has stepped up investment in generative AI, offering huge pay packages, some in the hundreds of millions of dollars, to lure top AI researchers to a new superintelligence team.
The company said it plans to invest $600 billion to build data centers by 2028.
Meta recently acquired the Moltbook platform and Chinese AI startup Manus, spending over $2 billion.
Zuckerberg said in January that he was beginning to see how “projects that used to require large teams can now be done by one very talented person” thanks to AI.
The AI earthquake on jobs
Meta's plans reflect a broader trend in big US tech companies. Executives cited improvements in AI systems as the reason for the staff cuts.
In February, payments company Block, owned by Jack Dorsey, a former co-founder of Twitter, announced it was laying off nearly half of its workforce as part of a reorganization aimed at integrating Artificial Intelligence into its operations.
“I don't think we're among the first to realize this. I think most companies are late,” CEO Jack Dorsey said.
He emphasized that the decision is not made because Block is in trouble, but the opposite. “Our business is solid. Gross profit continues to grow, we are serving more and more customers, and profitability is improving. But something has changed,” Dorsey said in his message.
In January, Amazon announced layoffs of 16,000 employees, nearly 10 percent of its workforce.
