Meta to begin company-wide layoffs next week, internal memo reveals shift toward AI hiring
Nickie Louise
Posted On February 7, 2025
Meta Platforms is gearing up for company-wide layoffs next week while fast-tracking the hiring of machine learning engineers, according to internal memos seen by Reuters.
Employees set to lose their jobs will start receiving notices at 5 a.m. local time on Monday in most countries, including the U.S., Reuters reported, citing one memo from Meta’s Head of People, Janelle Gale.
However, workers in Germany, France, Italy, and the Netherlands are exempt from these cuts “due to local regulations.” Employees in over a dozen other countries across Europe, Asia, and Africa will get their notifications between February 11 and February 18.
When contacted, a Meta spokesperson declined to comment on the memos.
In January, Meta confirmed plans to cut about 5% of its “lowest performers,” with some positions expected to be refilled. The memo, where Gale labeled the cuts as “performance terminations,” was first reported by The Information.
Unlike previous layoffs, Meta will keep its offices open on Monday and won’t release any further updates about the decisions, Gale noted in her post.
In a separate memo, VP of Engineering for Monetization Peng Fan called on staff to support an accelerated hiring process focused on machine learning engineers and other “business critical” roles. This hiring push will run from February 11 to March 13.
“Thank you for your continued support in helping us achieve our accelerated hiring goals, and better align with our company’s priorities for 2025,” Fan wrote.
The AI hiring may be part of the company’s broader effort to strengthen its AI unit. Just last month, an anonymous Meta employee expressed frustration in a post on the professional forum Blind, stating that the ‘Meta GenAI Org [is] in Panic Mode‘ as free open-source DeepSeek gains traction and outperforms OpenAI and Meta’s latest models at a fraction of the cost.
Meanwhile, with these layoffs, Meta joins a growing list of tech companies trimming their workforces. Amazon also announced job cuts last week. According to Layoffs.FYI, a site tracking layoffs in the tech industry, 42 tech companies have laid off 10,833 employees so far this year.
