Meta laid off roughly 8,000 employees on Wednesday, May 20. The company had asked its employees across regions, including the US and Britain, to work from home. Then at 4 am, the emails stared arriving with workers in Singapore getting termination emails landing in their inboxes as early as 4AM local time on Wednesday. According to Bloomberg, thousands of employees worldwide began receiving layoff emails early morning today. Employees across Europe and the United States are also expected to receive similar messages according to their respective time zones.
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Meta asked employees to not come to office
Ahead of the layoffs today, Meta employees were asked not to come to office as the layoffs rolled out. The company has also reassigned nearly 7,000 employees to newly formed AI-focused teams working on artificial intelligence products and AI agents. The latest round of job cuts is expected to primarily impact Meta’s engineering and product divisions.
According to Bloomberg, additional layoffs may take place later this year as Meta continues restructuring its workforce to prioritise AI-driven projects. Before the latest wave of layoffs and internal reshuffling began, the company had close to 80,000 employees worldwide at the end of March.
In an internal memo, Meta’s Head of People Janelle Gale explained the company’s thinking behind the restructuring. “We’re now at the stage where many orgs can operate with a flatter structure with smaller teams of pods/cohorts that can move faster and with more ownership,” Gale wrote. “We believe this will make us more productive and make the work more rewarding,” she added.
Workers laid off in the US will get 16 weeks of base pay as severance, plus two extra weeks for every year spent at Meta. Healthcare and career support come bundled in. Employees outside the US will get similar packages on country-specific timelines.
More layoffs likely later this year
The latest layoffs are part of a wider restructuring plan aimed at shifting more resources toward AI projects. Reports suggest that additional job cuts could take place later this year as Meta continues reorganising teams around AI products and automation.
According to reports, the company could spend between $125 billion and $145 billion on capital expenditure in 2026, with a large portion expected to go into AI data centres, custom chips, and model training systems.
AI a top priority for Mark Zuckerberg
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has made artificial intelligence the company’s biggest focus as competition intensifies with rivals like Google and OpenAI. Meta is expected to spend more than $100 billion on AI-related investments this year, including data centres, AI models, and advanced computing infrastructure.
Employees raise concerns over workplace changes
As AI becomes central to Meta’s future plans, many employees have reportedly expressed concerns over layoffs and new internal policies. Reports claim that more than 1,000 employees signed a petition urging the company not to collect detailed device activity data, including keystrokes and screen activity, for AI training purposes.
The concerns were linked to an internal initiative designed to help AI systems better understand how employees work on computers. Zuckerberg later clarified to staff that the data was not being used for employee surveillance, but only for improving AI tools and agents.
Investors question Meta’s massive AI spending
Investors have also raised concerns about the company’s aggressive AI spending strategy. Analysts cited in reports said the latest layoffs may help Meta save around $3 billion, which remains only a small fraction of the company’s expected AI expenditure.
Meta’s Chief Financial Officer Susan Li recently said the company is still trying to understand what its ideal workforce size should look like as AI continues to rapidly change the tech industry.
Internal morale at Meta has also reportedly taken a hit in recent months. Anonymous employee reviews on workplace platforms showed a decline in overall satisfaction levels, especially regarding company culture and workplace stability, as the company pushes deeper into AI-focused restructuring.
(With TOI inputs)
