Meta cuts hundreds of employees and continues to ramp up AI investments

ME News report, April 3 (UTC+8), Meta is laying off several hundred employees in Silicon Valley, while this tech giant is also making major investments in artificial intelligence and is considering cutting more than 20% of its total workforce. According to the latest state government filing documents, the Facebook parent company will lay off nearly 200 employees in the San Francisco Bay Area. The layoffs will affect 124 employees in Burlingame, California, as well as 74 employees in nearby Sunnyvale. Based on the documents, these layoffs will take effect in late May, and all affected positions will be permanently eliminated. Experts say this move signals that Meta is undergoing a major strategic transformation—shifting from an operations model that relies heavily on large teams to a machine-driven system. Meta’s recent AI-related moves include a plan to invest $10 billion in a data center in El Paso, Texas. Meta is also considering even larger-scale layoffs. Senior employees have been told to prepare for layoffs that could affect more than 20% of the company’s employees—about 15k employees. In response to this plan, a Meta spokesperson said, “This is a speculative report about a theoretical scenario.” If the layoffs go forward, it would be Meta’s largest round of layoffs since Zuckerberg pushed the company’s “efficiency years” in 2022 and 2023, when the company cut more than 20k employees. During a Meta earnings call, Zuckerberg said that with the adoption of AI tools, Meta is starting to “see projects that previously required large teams can now be done by someone very talented.” (Source: ChainCatcher)