Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, will cut 10% of its workforce next month as it concentrates investment in artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
Reuters reported on Monday (local time) that Meta plans to lay off approximately 8,000 employees on the 20th of next month. The figure represents more than 10% of Meta's total workforce of approximately 79,000 as of December 31 last year. According to sources, Meta is also planning additional restructuring in the second half of the year, though the specific timeline and scale have yet to be determined.
The latest layoffs are expected to be Meta's largest since late 2022 to early 2023, when the company cut 21,000 jobs. Reuters reported last month that Meta planned to lay off more than 20% of its global workforce, but the company dismissed the report at the time as "speculative."
Meta's sweeping restructuring is seen as part of its effort to reorient its business around AI. The company established Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL) last year and has begun full-scale development of superintelligent AI that surpasses human capabilities.
Meanwhile, Meta's board of directors recently raised performance-based compensation for executives, excluding Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, from 75% to 200% of base salary. The company also disclosed plans to grant executives hundreds of millions of dollars in additional stock compensation, contingent on raising the company's market capitalization to $9 trillion by 2031. Meta also told investors that its capital expenditures this year will reach as much as $135 billion (approximately 198 trillion won), driven by increased investment to support MSL and other core businesses.
Meta's moves reflect a broader trend of AI-driven workforce optimization among major U.S. technology companies. Facing massive AI infrastructure investment burdens and needing to persuade investors to provide financing, these companies are seeking to cut every possible dollar from labor costs.
Amazon has also sent home approximately 30,000 white-collar workers, or 10% of its office staff, in recent months. At Amazon Web Services (AWS), the company's core profit driver, hundreds of employees in the cloud division received layoff notices in July last year. "We made the difficult business decision to eliminate some positions in certain teams within AWS," an Amazon spokesperson said in an email statement. "This is essential to continue investing, hiring and optimizing resources to deliver innovation for our customers."
In February this year, Block, the fintech company founded by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, eliminated half of its positions.
Layoffs.fyi, a website that tracks layoffs at technology companies, reported that more than 124,000 people lost their jobs last year, and the number of workers laid off so far this year has reached approximately 73,000.
