Facebook owner Meta is cutting around 8000 jobs, equivalent to 10% of the workforce at the Facebook and Instagram company as it pours huge sums of cash into artificial intelligence infrastructure.
The layoffs, scheduled to be implemented from 20 May, have been revealed in a letter from chief people officer Janelle Gale.
Meta is also cancelling about 6000 other openings it was planning to hire for, increasing the total tally of affected jobs to close to 14,000.
More rounds of layoffs can also be expected in the second half of next year, although details have yet to be confirmed.
In her letter, Gale informed employees that the layoffs are being done for reasons of increased efficiency and offsetting the cost of investments being done elsewhere.
This move comes after the company has set ambitious plans to increase its capital spending almost two fold.
The company’s target is currently US$115 to US$135 billion, up from US$72 billion recorded in 2023, most of which is going to data centers and engineering expertise.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg flagged the shift on Meta’s January earnings call, describing 2026 as a key year when AI will transform how the company works.
Projects that used to take big teams, he said could now be done by a few highly skilled people.
A pattern across Big Tech
It is the third wave of layoffs by the technology giant Meta. In January, Meta let go of more than 1000 jobs in Reality Labs, a virtual reality branch, where multiple VR gaming studios had been shut down.
Then, in March, 700 more jobs were cut in other departments such as sales, recruiting and global operations.
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Previously, Amazon had slashed 16,000 jobs, while another company, Block, had announced a reduction in their workforce by 40% back in February.
All three had made this decision to become more efficient in the face of artificial intelligence changes in their operations. Together, Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft are expected to invest US$650 billion in capital expenditure in 2026.
United States based workers who lose their jobs will be paid their salary for 16 weeks plus an extra two weeks per year of employment with the company.
Shares of Meta dropped more than 2% in afternoon trading in New York on Thursday.
The company, which finished 2025 with nearly 79,000 workers, is also engaged in expensive legal battles after losing two major court cases over child safety on its platforms earlier this year.
