Meta is preparing to cut roughly 10 percent of its workforce next month while simultaneously ramping up spending on artificial intelligence to unprecedented levels. The internal memo describes around 8,000 job losses, along with thousands of open positions that will no longer be filled, as the company shifts more of its money and attention toward AI infrastructure and development.

The logic behind the move is clear enough. Meta is expected to spend between $115 billion and $135 billion this year on artificial intelligence, data centers, and related infrastructure, a level that nearly matches or exceeds what it spent on those areas over the previous three years combined. A spokesperson confirmed the upcoming cuts, but the company has so far avoided offering any deeper public explanation beyond the broad efficiency language it has been using for months.

Mark Zuckerberg had already signaled the direction in January, when he said he had seen just how much more productive employees became when they relied heavily on AI tools. His message was blunt: one person can now handle work that previously required a much larger team. He described 2026 as the year AI would begin to dramatically change the way people work, and the current plan suggests Meta is applying that philosophy internally with very little hesitation.

Employees Have Been Bracing for This for Weeks, and the Anxiety Is Easy to Understand

Reuters had already reported that Meta was targeting May 20 for the first major wave of layoffs, with the possibility of further cuts later in the year. The memo now reinforces that picture. The company is not only reducing its current workforce, but also freezing roughly 6,000 roles it had previously intended to hire for. This makes the move look less like a one-off cut and more like a structural reset tied directly to Meta’s AI-first strategy.

According to the BBC, many inside the company had been expecting a deeper round of layoffs for weeks. Tension was heightened further when Meta told employees that it would begin tracking and logging activity on work computers in part to improve its AI systems. One employee reportedly described that as dystopian, especially with job losses looming in the background. That reaction says a lot about how workers are reading the situation: not as abstract future-facing innovation, but as a reshaping of the company that may leave many of them behind.

Meta has been cutting jobs on and off since 2022, eliminating tens of thousands of positions over several rounds. Even so, it had started hiring again, and by last year its overall headcount appeared to have climbed back close to its earlier level. That is what makes this latest wave especially telling. It will be the company’s biggest layoff since 2023, and it highlights a broader shift across big tech, where enormous AI investment is increasingly being paired with the argument that fewer people are needed to do the work.

Source: BBC