Meta Cuts Jobs as AI Spending Takes Priority

Meta has begun laying off about 8,000 employees, cutting 10 percent of its global workforce as the company shifts more aggressively toward artificial intelligence.

The layoffs started on Wednesday and are expected to take place in three waves, beginning at 4am local time for affected workers, Reuters reported.

The cuts have already hit parts of the company responsible for integrity, cybersecurity and content design, according to Business Insider. That includes teams involved in removing malicious content and hate speech — not exactly the quiet back office of a platform business.

Meta confirmed to Al Jazeera that US-based workers affected by the layoffs will receive 16 weeks of severance pay, plus two additional weeks for every year they worked at the company.

The company, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, is also cancelling plans to hire 6,000 people and moving 7,000 other employees into AI workflow-related roles.

The restructuring comes as morale inside Meta appears increasingly strained. The Wall Street Journal reported that more than 1,500 employees signed a petition opposing an AI tracking programme designed to collect worker data to help train Meta’s own models.

One unnamed policy employee told Wired that morale is low partly because Meta’s US workforce is “being used to train the AI models that will replace them”.

The cuts also come alongside reduced spending on employees, including lower annual raises and a drop in median total compensation of nearly $30,000.

Mark Zuckerberg, however, is still spending heavily — just not in the same places. Meta is pouring money into AI development, including its Meta Superintelligence initiative. Capital expenditures are expected to reach $125bn to $145bn this year, more than double the level seen in 2025.

“The way to think about the investment is that we’re making a bet [on] the individual things that people care about, and that people are going to be more important in the future,” Zuckerberg said during an April earnings call.

Meta’s move fits into a broader pattern across the tech sector, where companies are cutting workers while expanding AI infrastructure. A Goldman Sachs survey found that AI-driven layoffs are now translating into more than 16,000 payroll cuts per month this year. Cisco has also announced plans to cut roughly 4,000 jobs.

Meta shares were up 0.1 percent in midday trading.