Meta Layoffs: Up to 16,000 Jobs at Risk as Zuckerberg Bets $600 Billion on AI

Breaking today. Reuters reported this morning that Meta is planning its most sweeping round of layoffs since 2022 — cuts that could eliminate 20% of the company's entire workforce, or roughly 16,000 jobs. No date has been set. No final number has been locked in. But senior leaders inside Meta have already been told to start planning reductions. The AI bill is coming due.

What Reuters Reported — and What Meta Said

Meta is planning sweeping layoffs that could affect 20% or more of the company, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, as Meta seeks to offset costly artificial intelligence infrastructure bets and prepare for greater efficiency brought about by AI-assisted workers. No date has been set for the cuts and the magnitude has not been finalized. Top executives have recently signaled the plans to other senior leaders at Meta and told them to begin planning how to pare back.

Meta spokesperson Andy Stone pushed back — carefully. "This is speculative reporting about theoretical approaches," Stone said in response to questions about the plan. That denial does not say the layoffs won't happen. It says the specific reporting is theoretical. A meaningful distinction.

16,000 Jobs. The Largest Cuts in Meta's History.

Meta employed nearly 79,000 people as of December 31, according to its latest filings. A 20% reduction would eliminate roughly 15,800 jobs, surpassing the scale of layoffs from the company's earlier restructuring push.

If Meta settles on the 20% figure, the layoffs will be the company's most significant since a restructuring in late 2022 and early 2023 that it dubbed the "year of efficiency." The company laid off 11,000 staffers in November 2022, or around 13% of its workforce at the time. Around four months later, it announced it was cutting another 10,000 jobs.

Earlier this year, Meta had already eliminated over 1,000 roles in its Reality Labs division in January. That was round one. This is round two — at a scale that dwarfs everything that came before.

The $600 Billion AI Bet Driving the Cuts

The math is not complicated. Meta is spending at a pace its current headcount cannot justify. The company has said it plans to invest up to $600 billion in data center infrastructure by 2028, as part of a long-term bet that AI will reshape nearly every product the company builds.

Meta's capital expenditure for 2026 is projected to reach as much as $135 billion, nearly double the $72 billion it spent the previous year. On top of that infrastructure spend, the company has offered huge pay packages — some worth hundreds of millions of dollars over four years — to court top AI researchers to a new superintelligence team.

Zuckerberg spelled out the internal logic in January. "Projects that used to require big teams now be accomplished by a single very talented person," he said. Fewer people, more AI. The workforce reductions follow directly from that premise.

Where the Cuts Are Expected to Land

Job losses are taking place in departments not directly aligned with Meta's new Superintelligence Labs or AI infrastructure. Middle management, fundamental AI research, and shared services and operations are expected to be impacted. Meta is looking to further cut layers of management to increase decision-making speed. Even within AI, Meta is reportedly streamlining its units to focus on high-stakes models such as Avocado and Mango, rather than its broader research teams.

The AI models themselves have not all delivered. The superintelligence team has been working to reassert the company's standing by building a new model called Avocado, but the performance of that model has lagged expectations. Meta scrapped the launch of its largest planned Llama 4 version, known internally as Behemoth, after benchmark criticism last year.

The Industry Pattern Behind the Decision

Meta is not making this move in isolation. In January, Amazon confirmed it would cut some 16,000 jobs, amounting to nearly 10% of its workforce. Fintech firm Block made even deeper cuts last month, removing nearly half of its staff — CEO Jack Dorsey pointed directly to the growing capabilities of AI tools that allow companies to produce more with fewer people.

Over 45,000 tech employees have lost their positions worldwide since the start of 2026. Meta's potential 16,000 would push that number past 60,000 before spring ends.