Meta Shares 'Unwelcome News' With Its Employees

Meta is shrinking its payroll as it doubles down on artificial intelligence. The parent of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp plans to cut about 10% of its staff—roughly 8,000 jobs—and eliminate another 6,000 open positions, per an internal memo to employees confirmed by the company. In that memo, chief people officer Janelle Gale framed the move as a push for "efficiency and to allow us to offset the other investments we're making," ostensibly in AI. NBC News notes "a Meta executive did not explicitly mention AI when discussing the cuts but said they were needed to compensate for spending elsewhere."

Gale's memo acknowledged it means losing employees who "made meaningful contributions." CNBC reports the cuts will be made on May 20, and the Los Angeles Times reports leaked reports of the looming layoffs prompted Meta to alert employees. Meta had more than 78,000 workers at the end of 2025, per the New York Times. "I know this is unwelcome news and confirming this puts everyone in an uneasy state, but we feel this is the best path forward, given the circumstances," the memo stated.

Mark Zuckerberg poured $72 billion into AI-related investments last year, and in January predicted those costs could surge as high as $135 billion in 2026. The Los Angeles Times reports Meta joins companies like Amazon, Snap, and Block in making deep cuts this year. It cites numbers from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas that show tech companies announced 52,050 layoffs in Q1, a 40% year-over-year rise.