Meta just axed about a tenth of its staff, and Mark Zuckerberg is pitching the move as both a reset and a bet on artificial intelligence. In a companywide memo on Wednesday, the CEO said that roughly 8,000 employees are being let go and about 6,000 open roles will stay unfilled, as the company pours resources into AI and shifts 7,000 workers into related jobs, reports NBC News. Zuckerberg told employees he doesn't expect more layoffs in 2026, but he also cautioned that "success isn't a given" as tech companies race to dominate what he called the defining technology of this era.
Business Insider has the full email sent to terminated employees, who were informed that "we have decided to reduce headcount as part of our continued effort to run the company more efficiently and to allow us to offset the other investments we're making." The cuts, foreshadowed by leaks last month, land as Meta plans to boost 2026 capital spending to as much as $145 billion, largely for components and for data centers to power future AI capacity.
Zuckerberg acknowledged Meta hasn't been as open internally as it should be and said he hopes to improve communication. US workers who are losing their jobs will receive at least four months' severance, plus added weeks per year of service, along with immigration and healthcare support, according to an earlier memo from HR chief Janelle Gale. The New York Times reports that other tech giants, including Cisco, Coinbase, Microsoft, and Block, have also recently slashed staff during recent shifts to AI.
"Tech workers, it is becoming clear, have been creating their own AI replacements," the paper notes. How are employees reacting to the news? Wired reports that, ahead of Wednesday's layoffs, many staffers raced to take last-minute advantage of any employee perks or benefits, while the San Francisco Staffer says workers are resorting to "prayers, nudist colonies, [and] drinking."
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