Meta is considering sweeping layoffs that could affect 20% or more of its workforce as the company increases spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure and related projects. If the cuts reach that level, they could affect nearly 16,000 employees based on Meta’s workforce of almost 79,000 people at the end of December.
The plan has not been finalized, and reports say no date has been set for the layoffs. Meta spokesperson Andy Stone pushed back on the reports, saying, “This is speculative reporting about theoretical approaches.”
What the plan could mean
A reduction of 20% would mark Meta’s biggest workforce cut since its restructuring during what Mark Zuckerberg called the “year of efficiency” in late 2022 and early 2023. Meta cut about 11,000 jobs in November 2022, then announced another 10,000 layoffs roughly four months later, according to the reports.
Several reports say senior Meta executives have recently told other leaders to start planning how teams could be trimmed. At the same time, those same reports stress that the size and timing of any cuts remain under discussion.
AI spending at the center
The potential Meta layoffs come as Zuckerberg pushes the company harder into generative AI and broader AI development. Reports say Meta has been spending heavily on AI infrastructure, hiring, and acquisitions as it tries to strengthen its position in the race for advanced AI systems.
Reports indicated that Meta has offered very large compensation packages to attract top AI researchers to a new superintelligence team. Those reports also said the company plans to invest $600 billion in data centers by 2028, while also acquiring Moltbook and pursuing a deal worth at least $2 billion for Chinese AI startup Manus.
Zuckerberg has also publicly tied AI to higher productivity inside the company. In January, he said he was beginning to see “projects that used to require big teams now be accomplished by a single very talented person.”
Questions around Meta’s AI push
Meta’s new spending wave follows setbacks in its AI program last year. The reports say the company faced criticism over misleading benchmark results tied to early versions of its Llama 4 models, and it dropped plans to release the largest version, called Behemoth, during the summer.
The company’s superintelligence team is now working on a new model called Avocado, but several reports said its performance has lagged expectations and its release has been delayed. That has added to the pressure on Meta as it pours more money into AI while trying to show that those investments can improve the business.
Part of a broader tech pattern
Reports on Meta’s plans place them within a wider trend of job cuts across the tech sector this year. Several reports noted that Amazon confirmed in January that it would cut about 16,000 jobs, and also pointed to job reductions at Block as another example of companies linking workforce changes to AI-driven efficiency.
That context matters because Meta’s reported cuts, if they happen at the 20% level, would stand out not only inside the company but across Big Tech. For now, though, the situation remains unsettled: executives are said to be preparing options, the company is still investing aggressively in AI, and Meta is publicly describing the reporting as speculative.
