Meta has reportedly started laying off employees as the company continues to spend heavily on AI. Thousands of employees across different countries are being affected as the company restructures teams to cut costs and improve efficiency. According to Bloomberg, the layoffs began in Singapore, where employees received e-mails at around 4 AM local time on May 20 informing them that they were losing their jobs. Workers in countries including the US and Britain are also expected to receive similar notices early in the morning in their own time zones.
At the same time, Meta reportedly asked employees to work from home while the company carried out the layoffs globally. Around 8,000 jobs are expected to be cut worldwide. The latest layoffs are said to mainly impact engineering and product teams. More job cuts could happen later in 2026, as per the report.
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Meta recently announced internally that about 7,000 employees were being moved into newly created AI-focused teams. These teams are expected to work on AI products, tools and agents.
‘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,’ Meta’s head of people Janelle Gale said in the memo, which was reviewed by Bloomberg. ‘We believe this will make us more productive and make the work more rewarding.’
CEO Mark Zuckerberg has made AI the company’s biggest priority. Meta is reportedly planning to spend more than $100 billion on AI-related investments in 2026 alone.
The company has already gone through several rounds of layoffs over the past few years. Also, Meta has been encouraging employees to use AI tools for coding and other tasks for increased efficiency.