Meta could slash more than 20 percent of its workforce as the company that owns Facebook pours billions into artificial intelligence. The potential cuts could affect over 15,000 of the tech giant's employees, according to sources cited by Reuters. Senior executives have reportedly told leaders across the company to begin planning ways to reduce headcount as Meta pushes deeper into AI and automation. While the exact scale of the layoffs has not yet been finalized, if carried out, the cuts would mark the company's biggest job purge since Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg launched his 'year of efficiency' in 2022, when more than 21,000 roles were eliminated. Meta employed about 79,000 workers at the end of last year.
How Meta's New AI Chief is Reshaping the Company's Workforce
A spokesperson for the company told the Daily Mail that the claims were 'speculative reporting about theoretical approaches.' The looming cuts come as Zuckerberg doubles down on AI - pouring vast sums into new data centers, research teams and powerful AI models. Meta has 31 data centers across the globe, with server space to process and store the billions of messages, posts, and images circulated on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp every single second of the day. In June 2025, the company invested $14.3 billion in Scale AI, a software company that was poached by Meta along with its CEO Alexandr Wang.
The $700 Billion Gamble
Meta revealed in its fourth-quarter earnings report in January that it expects to spend between $115 billion and $135 billion on AI this year. When combined with planned investments from Amazon, Alphabet, and Microsoft, total AI spending by the four tech giants could reach around $700 billion. Despite reports of planned layoffs from Reuters, the company's push to improve efficiency through its AI tools appears to be paying off.
Investors reacted positively, with Meta's stock rising 3 percent to 632 in early trading this morning. Meta is not alone in linking artificial intelligence to layoffs. Amazon cut around 16,000 jobs in January as it restructures while investing heavily in AI. It was the second major round of layoffs in just three months after slashing 14,000 roles in October.
Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey is cutting half the jobs at his payments firm, Block, as it shifts toward smaller teams powered by automation. Dorsey stated on X in late February that this move was meant to take a 'hard, clear action now' rather than opting to slowly reduce jobs and risk lowering morale among workers. Software company Atlassian also announced plans to cut about 10 percent of its workforce to focus on AI. Across the US, more than 12,000 layoffs this year have already been tied directly to artificial intelligence, according to consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.