Meta to cut 8,000 jobs in latest restructuring push toward AI

Meta told employees on Wednesday that it will cut approximately 8,000 jobs, roughly 10 percent of its global workforce, beginning on 20 May. The company is also cancelling 6,000 open requisitions it had planned to fill, bringing the effective headcount reduction to 14,000 positions. Additional cuts are planned for the second half of the year, though their timing and scope have not been finalised. The memo announcing the cuts was written by Janelle Gale, Meta's head of human resources, who said the announcement came early because details had already leaked. "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," Gale wrote. Those investments cost between $115 billion and $135 billion this year alone, nearly all of it directed at AI infrastructure. The May cuts are the third wave of 2026 layoffs at Meta. In January, the company eliminated more than 1,000 positions in Reality Labs, shutting down several VR game studios. In March, it cut another 700 employees across at least five divisions. The May round is company-wide and structural rather than performance-based. Meta is reorganising teams into AI-focused "pods" and transferring engineers into the Applied AI organisation. New role categories are being created: "AI builder," "AI pod lead," and "AI org lead." US workers affected by the May round will receive 16 weeks of base pay plus two additional weeks per year of service, and 18 months of health coverage. The cumulative toll since 2022 now exceeds 33,000 jobs.