The next big shoe to drop in the local tech world that is being blamed on AI is a massive layoff reportedly about to happen at Meta, where CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been investing heavily in AI over the last year.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram, is planing sweeping layoffs, possibly as soon as this week, with a reported plan to cut around 20% of its staff.
The layoffs were first reported by Reuters on Friday, and the intention of them is reportedly to offset the massive costs of Meta's investments in AI. There was no timeline given for when this layoff may occur.
And news of the layoffs, much as happened with news of Block slashing 40% of its staff three weeks ago, sent Meta's stock rising over 2% Monday morning.
With a reported headcount of 79,000 as of December, Meta's layoff will be much more impactful in terms of the tech job market and potentially the local economy, than Block's. A downsizing of 20% would mean this layoff would impact almost 16,000 employees.
Meta's last big round of layoffs, in February 2025, impacted around 3,600 employees, or around 5% of its total headcount. But between November 2022 and March 2023, the company let go of some 21,000 employees in two big layoffs, after the company's headcount ballooned to around 87,000 during the pandemic. At the time, a contrite Zuckerberg said, "I got this wrong," saying that the company's big bet on the metaverse, among things, was to blame.
Clearly the Meta headcount had creeped back up to nearly 80,000 over the last two years.
As KRON4 notes, with the stock price jump today, it is yet another example of the market rewarding companies for slashing jobs in the name of AI, so we can expect more of this kind of news in the coming months.
Elon Musk has reportedly ordered sweeping layoffs at xAI, which is not a public company and was folded into SpaceX last year, saying in a tweet that the company "was not built right the first time around," and will now be rebuilt "from the foundations up."
Previously: Meta Acquires 'Social Network for AI Agents' Moltbook, While OpenAI Hires One of Its Vibe Coders
Top image: Sign with logo in front of the headquarters of Meta at 1 Hacker Way in the Silicon Valley, Menlo Park, California, July 11, 2024. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)
