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A sweeping restructuring is underway at one of Silicon Valley’s most influential companies as the meta 10% workforce layoff plan moves forward, cutting roughly 8,000 jobs while the company doubles down on artificial intelligence investments that are reshaping its future.

Job Cuts Set to Begin as Hiring Freeze Expands

Meta Platforms confirmed in an internal memo Thursday that it will eliminate about 10% of its workforce, marking one of its most significant restructuring efforts in recent years.

The layoffs are scheduled to begin on May 20. In addition, the company is canceling plans to fill approximately 6,000 open positions, tightening its hiring pipeline as it reallocates resources toward AI development.

Bloomberg first reported the scale of the cuts.

AI Push Drives Repeated Rounds of Layoffs

The latest reductions continue a broader trend of workforce trimming as Meta attempts to sharpen efficiency and catch up in the fiercely competitive artificial intelligence race against rivals like OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic.

Earlier waves of layoffs have already reshaped the company’s internal structure:

• In January, roughly 10% of employees working on metaverse projects were cut, including about 1,000 staff in the Reality Labs division.
• A March round of layoffs affected hundreds across Facebook, Reality Labs, global operations, and sales teams.
• Meta has also moved away from third-party contractors for content moderation, replacing parts of that workforce with AI systems.

Each round reflects a company steadily shifting from human-heavy moderation and experimental metaverse projects toward automated, AI-driven systems.

Industry-Wide Shakeup Accelerates

Meta’s restructuring is part of a broader industry contraction as tech giants recalibrate for the AI era.

Microsoft recently announced voluntary buyouts for certain U.S. employees, affecting roughly 7% of its domestic workforce, while Amazon has already eliminated about 16,000 corporate roles in its own cost-cutting push.

Like tectonic plates shifting beneath Silicon Valley, the AI boom is forcing companies to compress, realign, and rebuild at speed.

Workforce Reduction After Pandemic Hiring Surge

Meta reported in January that it had 78,865 employees worldwide as of December 31, down from 86,482 in 2022, following years of aggressive hiring during the post-pandemic tech expansion.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg has made artificial intelligence the company’s central priority, positioning it as the engine of future growth.

Earlier this month, Meta introduced its first major AI model following the high-profile hiring of Scale AI’s Alexandr Wang. More recently, the company revealed internal tools designed to further accelerate AI development.

Employee Data Tool Raises Questions

Meta also disclosed a new internal tracking system called the Model Capability Initiative (MCI), which collects data from employees’ work devices, including keystrokes and mouse activity.

A company spokesperson said the data is used to train AI agents designed to improve system capabilities, though the move has drawn attention as workplace data collection becomes increasingly intertwined with machine learning development.

Earnings Ahead as Pressure Builds

Meta is set to report first-quarter earnings next Wednesday alongside other tech giants including Alphabet, Amazon, and Microsoft, a moment expected to shed light on whether its aggressive restructuring is paying off.

Shares of Meta fell 2.4% Thursday and are now roughly flat for the year, reflecting investor uncertainty as the company attempts to balance cost-cutting with high-stakes AI investment.

For Meta, the path forward looks less like steady growth and more like a high-speed recalibration—where every job cut and AI breakthrough is part of a larger gamble on the future of digital intelligence.