Meta set to sack many workers as AI costs mount

Meta is planning sweeping layoffs ​that could affect 20% or more of the company, three sources familiar with the matter have disclosed.

This comes 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 finalised, the sources told Reuters.

Top executives have recently signaled the plans to other senior leaders at Meta and told ​them to begin planning how to pare back, said two of the sources who spoke anonymously because they ​were not authorised to disclose the cuts.

“This is speculative reporting about theoretical approaches,” Meta spokesperson Andy Stone ⁠said in response to questions about the plan.

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.”

It employed nearly 79,000 people as ​of December 31, according to its latest filing.

Amazon sacks 16,000 workers

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.

Over the last year, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been pushing Meta to ​compete more forcefully in generative AI.

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.

The company has said it plans to invest $600 billion to build data centres ‌by 2028. ⁠

Earlier this week, it acquired Moltbook, a social networking platform built for AI agents. Meta is also spending at least $2 billion to buy Chinese AI startup Manus.

The Star