Meta plans massive layoffs of up to 20% of the workforce to offset soaring AI costs

Meta is planning another major round of layoffs as it ramps up spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure. Three people familiar with internal discussions told Reuters that Meta is weighing job cuts that could affect 20% or more of its workforce, a move aimed at countering the rising costs of its aggressive push into AI and the efficiency gains executives expect from AI-assisted workers. The company has not set a timeline, and the final number of roles affected remains undecided.

“Meta is planning sweeping layoffs ​that could affect 20% or more of the company, Reuters reported, citing the sources

Senior leaders across Meta have recently been told to start planning for broad reductions, two of the people said. The sources spoke anonymously since they were not authorized to discuss internal planning.

“This is speculative reporting about theoretical approaches,” Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said when asked about the potential layoffs.

If the company moves forward with cuts on the scale currently being discussed, the reductions would rank among the largest in Meta’s history. Meta employed nearly 79,000 people as of December 31, according to its latest filings. A 20% reduction would eliminate roughly 15,800 jobs, surpassing the scale of layoffs from the company’s earlier restructuring push.

That earlier effort unfolded in late 2022 and early 2023, a period CEO Mark Zuckerberg called Meta’s “year of efficiency.” The company first eliminated 11,000 roles in November 2022, about 13% of its workforce at the time. Four months later, Meta cut another 10,000 jobs as the company reorganized teams and slowed hiring.

The current discussions point to a deeper shift inside Meta as the company races to strengthen its position in artificial intelligence.

Over the past year, Zuckerberg has pushed Meta to compete more aggressively in generative AI. The company has offered unusually large compensation packages to recruit leading researchers, with some deals reportedly worth hundreds of millions of dollars over four years. Those hires are joining a newly formed superintelligence group tasked with advancing Meta’s next-generation AI systems.

Meta’s ambitions extend far beyond hiring. The company has said it plans to invest up to $600 billion in data center infrastructure by 2028, as part of a long-term bet that AI will reshape nearly every product the company builds. The spending covers massive computing clusters required to train and operate large AI models.

Recent acquisitions and investments reflect the same push. Earlier this week, Meta acquired Moltbook, a social networking platform created for AI agents. The company is also spending at least $2 billion to acquire the Chinese AI startup Manus, Reuters previously reported.

Meta May Slash Up to 20% of Jobs as AI Spending Soars and Zuckerberg Pushes Efficiency

Zuckerberg has already hinted at the efficiency gains he expects from these investments. In January, he said the company is starting to see “projects that used to require big teams now be accomplished by a single very talented person.”

Meta is not alone. The shift toward smaller teams supported by AI tools is playing out across the tech industry. Amazon confirmed in January that it would eliminate around 16,000 jobs, close to 10% of its workforce. Fintech firm Block made even deeper cuts last month, removing nearly half of its staff. CEO Jack Dorsey pointed directly to the growing capabilities of AI tools that allow companies to produce more with fewer people.

Meta’s spending surge arrives after a turbulent stretch for its AI model development. The company faced criticism last year after early versions of its Llama 4 models produced misleading benchmark results. Meta later abandoned plans to release its largest model in the series, called Behemoth, which had been expected during the summer.

The company’s superintelligence team is working on a new model known internally as Avocado, meant to restore Meta’s competitive standing in the AI race. Early performance has yet to meet internal expectations, according to people familiar with the project.

Even with those setbacks, Meta appears determined to press forward with one of the largest AI infrastructure bets in the tech industry. The proposed layoffs signal the scale of that commitment, and the cost companies are willing to absorb as the race to build powerful AI systems accelerates.

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