Meta Platforms has laid off approximately 10% of its workforce and is redirecting 7,000 employees into artificial intelligence roles, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced in a companywide memo, marking one of the largest corporate reorganizations aimed at pivoting toward AI development.
The restructuring, which had been anticipated since an internal memo in April, involves cutting about 8,000 employees and eliminating approximately 6,000 open positions. Affected U.S. employees will receive four months of severance pay plus additional weeks for each year of tenure, along with healthcare and immigration support.
“AI is the most consequential technology of our lifetimes. The companies that lead the way will define the next generation,” Zuckerberg wrote. “But success isn’t a given.” He acknowledged that Meta had not been as transparent as he would have liked about the changes, something he said the company would work to improve.
The layoffs come as Meta increases its 2026 capital expenditures to between $125 billion and $145 billion, driven by higher component pricing and additional data center costs. The spending surge reflects the broader industry trend of tech companies diverting massive resources to AI infrastructure, even at the cost of headcount reductions.
For New York, where Meta employs thousands of workers at its offices in Hudson Yards and other Manhattan locations, the cuts represent a significant workforce shift. The city’s tech sector has been a major driver of commercial real estate demand and ancillary spending, and large-scale layoffs from anchor tenants carry ripple effects across the local economy.
The restructuring also underscores the competitive pressures facing Meta and other platform companies. Rivals including Anthropic, which just filed for its own IPO at a near-trillion-dollar valuation, and OpenAI are vying for the same AI talent pool, creating a war for specialized workers even as broader tech headcount shrinks.
Zuckerberg assured remaining employees that there should not be additional cuts in 2026, though industry analysts note that the pace of AI investment may necessitate further organizational changes as the technology evolves.
Source: NBC New York | Business of New York
