Meta is preparing a layoff round of more than 20%, a move that could affect over 15,000 employees based on its current workforce of about 79,000. Reuters, citing people familiar with the matter, said the company is working on what would be its biggest restructuring since late 2022. The timing and final scale have not been decided, but internal discussions have moved into a more concrete stage.
AI infrastructure has become the central cost driver
The logic behind this round differs from Meta’s earlier cuts. In late 2022, the company carried out its first large-scale layoff in 18 years, eliminating about 11,000 jobs. In early 2023, Mark Zuckerberg followed with another 10,000 cuts under what he called the “year of efficiency.” At that time, pressure came largely from a weaker advertising market and heavy spending on the metaverse.
Now the center of gravity is AI. According to the report, Meta is pouring money into AI infrastructure, including its in-house MTIA AI chips and a new generation of data centers. As capital expenditures climb, the company is looking at labor costs for offset. There is also a structural argument inside Meta: Zuckerberg believes AI tools now let smaller teams handle workloads that once required much larger departments. That shifts hiring logic, and it shifts headcount decisions too.
Tech layoffs in 2026 have passed 45,000
Meta is not alone. The source material says that tech-sector layoffs in 2026 have already exceeded 45,000, with more than 9,200 of those cuts seen as directly tied to job replacement driven by AI automation. Customer service, content moderation, and some engineering roles are among the functions under pressure. The pattern is no longer isolated. It is spreading across large technology companies.
Cutting headcount while still competing for AI talent
Even as it shrinks parts of the organization, Meta has kept moving aggressively on AI talent and product capability. The report says the company offered compensation packages worth over $100 million to attract talent, yet still lost three top AI researchers within two months. On the product side, Meta also moved to acquire AI agent unicorn Manus, aiming to embed generative AI more deeply into Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.
The final decision on the layoffs is still pending. The direction is already visible: more capital flowing into AI infrastructure, and a smaller organizational shape built around it.