Meta to cut 10% of global workforce to offset AI spending

Meta plans to cut 10 per cent of workers, or roughly 8,000 employees, in an effort to boost efficiency and offset its heavy spending on artificial intelligence. The company disclosed the move in a memo sent to employees on Thursday, saying the lay-offs will come on May 20th. It is not yet clear how many jobs in Ireland, where Meta has its European headquarters, will be affected. The tech giant employs around 1,800 people in the Republic. Meta also won’t hire workers for 6,000 open roles that it had intended to fill. The job cuts come as chief executive Mark Zuckerberg is spending aggressively on the talent and infrastructure needed to develop state-of-the-art artificial intelligence products, including large language models and chatbots. Meta already projected record capital expenditures this year, and has announced several multibillion-dollar deals with AI partners over the past few months. Employees have been encouraged to use AI agents internally to help with writing code and other tasks. Meta alluded to its AI spending in the memo, which was written by Janelle Gale, chief people officer. “We’re doing this as part of our continued effort to run the company more efficiently and to allow us to offset the other investments we’re making,” she wrote in the note, which was reviewed by Bloomberg. Meta employees have spent much of the year fretting about job cuts, which already hit the Reality Labs division and other teams. Gale said that the company was announcing the lay-offs early since details of the plan had already leaked. Reuters first reported on Meta’s planned workforce reductions earlier this month. “I know this is unwelcome news and confirming this puts everyone in an uneasy state, but we feel this is the best path forward, given the circumstances,” Gale wrote. Other big tech companies are making cuts in the face of booming AI spending. Microsoft Corp. offered voluntary retirement to thousands of US employees on Thursday. Meta had almost 79,000 employees at the start of the year. The company is scheduled to report first-quarter earnings next week. – Additional reporting: Ian Curran