Meta Platforms Inc. is planning to lay off as much as 20% of its global staff, according to sources familiar with the company. The layoffs aim to offset costly investments in artificial intelligence and automate more business processes with AI.
Senior executives have instructed top officials to start planning the cuts, though no final decision has been made. If implemented, this would be the most significant reduction since late 2022 and early 2023, when Meta cut over 11,000 jobs.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg is pushing the company to compete better in the AI industry against rivals like Google and OpenAI. Meta recently announced a $600 billion investment in data centers by 2028 and has spent millions on acquisitions, including Moltbook and Manus.
Meta’s strategy includes replacing human workers with AI systems, following similar moves by Amazon and Block. However, Meta's AI efforts, particularly with Llama 4 models, have faced setbacks, leading to the abandonment of a more powerful version, Behemoth. A new model, Avocado, is under development.