Meta plans to cut 10 % of staff as it pours billions into AI

Set to happen in May, Meta makes arrangements to cut more than 10 % of their staff

Cora Smith, Editor

May 5, 2026

Cars drive past a sign of Meta, the new name for the company formerly known as Facebook, at its headquarters in Menlo Park, California ( Carlos Barria S | Reuters / October, 28 21 ).

On Thursday, Meta announced that they will soon be cutting approximately 10% of its staff — roughly 8,000 employees — as part of a radical pivot toward artificial intelligence.

People pose for a photo in front of a sign of Meta, the new name for the company formerly known as Facebook, at its headquarters in Menlo Park, California ( Nathan Frandino | Reuters / October, 28 21 ).

The layoffs are set to take place on May 20 and affect more than 6,000 open roles that it had originally intended to fill throughout the year.

Initially at the start of this year, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg hinted that the company, Meta, would be seeing some workforce changes because of the advancements of artificial intelligence . Within Meta’s January earnings call, Zuckerberg states that 2026 is “ the year that AI starts to dramatically change the way that we work ” (Zuckerberg , Jan, 28, 26 ).

Additionally, the company announced that U.S. employees that were impacted by this layoff will receive a severance package consisting of 16 weeks of base pay, plus an additional two weeks for every year of service, with similar terms offered internationally.

Meta and other big tech industries have also been shifting their focus onto artificial intelligence, spending vast amounts of money to build data centers and other AI infrastructure around the globe, with Meta being behind competitors such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Google.

Due to this, as cited in a NPR News Article, Meta forecast record capital expenditures this year of up to $135 billion, being nearly double the amount that it spent last year (Park , Jan, 28, 26 ).

Similar to other big tech industries since the rise of AI, Meta has already removed tens of thousands of jobs in 2022 and 2023, reductions that were largely attributed to right-sizing after Covid-era spikes in usage and hiring.