Thought Leadership
Meta is gearing up for what could be its largest round of layoffs since the self-declared “year of efficiency.” According to a Reuters report, the company is considering cutting up to one-fifth of its staff.
With a current headcount of roughly 79,000, that could mean more than 15,000 jobs eliminated. Neither a timeline nor the final scope has been confirmed, but preparations are already underway: senior leaders have reportedly been instructed to draw up plans. Meta itself has dismissed the reporting as “speculative coverage of theoretical approaches.”
Déjà vu with a twist
Anyone who remembers 2022 will recognize the pattern. Back then, Meta cut 11,000 jobs, followed shortly by another 10,000, citing the failed Metaverse bet and the need to run leaner. This time, the story is different. Rather than correcting past missteps, Zuckerberg is looking to fund a new wager: generative AI.
In recent months, he has launched an aggressive push. Meta plans to invest around $600 billion in data centers by 2028, has offered select AI researchers compensation packages in the hundreds of millions, and just this week acquired Moltbook, a social networking platform specializing in AI agents. On top of that, the company is pursuing an acquisition of Chinese AI startup Manus for at least $2 billion.
The returns aren’t there yet
Meta’s own AI models, however, have struggled. The Llama 4 series generated negative headlines last year, including accusations of inflated benchmark results. Its most ambitious model, Behemoth, was never released. And the follow-up project, Avocado, developed by Meta’s new superintelligence team to restore the company’s reputation in AI research, is reportedly falling short of expectations as well.
An industry-wide trend
Meta is far from alone. Amazon cut roughly 16,000 jobs in January. Fintech company Block laid off nearly half its workforce last month, with CEO Jack Dorsey explicitly pointing to AI tools as enabling smaller teams. Zuckerberg has made similar arguments, claiming that projects once requiring large teams can now be handled by individual employees.
It’s a line of reasoning that has become fashionable across the tech industry. Whether it holds up in Meta’s case remains to be seen. The headcount savings are concrete; the promised efficiency gains from AI, for now, remain exactly that: a promise.
