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Photo courtesy of Yonhap News |
[Alpha Biz= Paul Lee] MENLO PARK — Meta is reportedly preparing for a sweeping round of layoffs that could see more than 20% of its global workforce let go, according to sources familiar with the matter. The move comes as Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg moves to prioritize aggressive investment in artificial intelligence while cutting costs elsewhere to maintain organizational efficiency.
The directive, first reported by Reuters, suggests that top-tier leadership has been tasked with drafting plans for what would be the company’s largest staff reduction since the massive cuts of late 2022 and early 2023. With Meta’s headcount hovering around 79,000 at the end of last year, a 20% reduction would result in roughly 15,000 to 16,000 employees losing their jobs.
This latest "Year of Efficiency" sequel is largely driven by the staggering costs associated with building out AI infrastructure. Despite Zuckerberg’s pivot toward generative AI, the payoff has been sluggish. The company’s latest large language model, Llama 4, has faced sharp criticism in its early stages, and development timelines for subsequent models have reportedly slipped behind those of industry rivals.
Meta is far from alone in this trend of "AI-driven restructuring." The move mirrors similar actions taken by Amazon, which recently cut 10% of its staff, and the fintech firm Block, which attributed its own layoffs to the increasing role of AI automation. Across Silicon Valley, the narrative is shifting from rapid growth to a high-stakes reallocation of capital, as Big Tech firms swap human payroll for the massive computing power required to win the AI arms race.
알파경제 Paul Lee 특파원(hoondork1977@alphabiz.co.kr)
