Meta is cutting roughly 8,000 employees — about 10% of its global workforce — starting May 20, while also scrapping plans to fill 6,000 open roles, the company confirmed Thursday in a memo to staff. Bloomberg first reported the layoffs.
The cuts are the largest single reduction Meta has announced in a wave of job actions stretching back over a year. In January, the company let go of about 10% of employees working on metaverse-related projects, affecting roughly 1,000 people in the Reality Labs unit. A second round followed in March, hitting workers across Facebook, Reality Labs, global operations, and sales. Meta also said last month it would replace third-party content moderation contractors with AI systems.
As of December 31, Meta had 78,865 employees worldwide, down from a peak of 86,482 in late 2022. That peak came after years of aggressive hiring during the pandemic era tech boom. The company's headcount stood at just 58,604 at the end of 2020, meaning it grew by nearly 50% in two years before reversing course.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg has made AI the company's central priority. Earlier this month, Meta debuted its first major AI model since hiring Scale AI's Alexandr Wang in June. This week, the company also revealed a new internal tracking tool called the Model Capability Initiative, which captures keystrokes and mouse clicks from employees on work computers. A Meta spokesperson said the data is used to train AI agents.
Meta is not alone in trimming its workforce while redirecting spending toward AI. Microsoft confirmed Thursday that it is offering voluntary buyouts to some U.S. employees — a first in the company's 51-year history. Roughly 7% of U.S. employees are eligible, according to a person familiar with the plans. In January, Amazon announced plans to eliminate about 16,000 corporate jobs in its second round of mass cuts since October.
The broader pattern reflects a sector-wide recalibration. Companies that expanded rapidly during the pandemic are now shedding workers in categories seen as redundant or replaceable by AI, while simultaneously pouring money into AI infrastructure and talent. Meta has lagged behind OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic in generative AI, and Zuckerberg has moved aggressively to close that gap.
Meta shares fell 2.4% Thursday and are now roughly flat for the year. The company is scheduled to report first-quarter earnings next Wednesday, alongside Alphabet, Amazon, and Microsoft.
