Credit: Velina Bozhilova via Unsplash
Meta is cutting about 10% of staff, many of whom have made a ”meaningful” contribution to the growth of the social media pioneer, and closing about 6,000 open roles.
Employees were told of the changes, to take effect May 20 with the departure of almost 8,000, in an internal memo.
The social media leader, which owns Facebook and Instagram, has said its big investment in AI tools has been getting more done with fewer people. It had 78,865 employees at last report.
Meta chief people officer Janelle Gale sent a memo in response to a leak to the media.
“Normally, we would want to nail down more details before communicating about this broadly, but since this has leaked, I want to share what I can right now,” she wrote.
“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.
“We're doing this as part of our continued effort to run the company more efficiently and to allow us to offset the other investments we're making.
“This is not an easy trade-off and it will mean letting go of people who have made meaningful contributions to Meta during their time here.”
Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg earlier this year said that 2026 is going to be the year that AI starts to "dramatically change the way that we work".
"As we navigate this, our north star is building the best place for individuals to make a massive impact," he told analysts in an earnings call.
"So to do this, we're investing in AI-native tooling so individuals at Meta can get more done, we’re elevating individual contributors, and flattening teams.
“We’re starting to see projects that used to require big teams now be accomplished by a single very talented person."
Severance packages in the US will include 16 weeks base pay plus two weeks for every year of employment. Similar conditions will apply outside the US.
Meta posted a 25% lift in advertising revenue to $US58.137 billion in the December quarter as the platform increased ad impressions and prices.
Overall revenue was up 25% to $US59.89 billion in the December quarter and 22% for the full year to $US200.97 billion.
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