Meta cuts 700 jobs across Reality Labs and recruiting as AI spending doubles to $135 billion
9 Sources
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Meta cuts about 700 jobs as it shifts spending to AI
Meta has begun laying off employees as it focuses more of its cash on building out datacenters, training its own large language models, and recruiting talent for AI. A person familiar with the cuts told The Register they would number about 700. According to The Information, the job losses will
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Meta Lays Off 700 Employees, While Rewarding Top Executives
Meta on Wednesday laid off around 700 employees, a person with knowledge of the company said, the latest downsizing as the Silicon Valley giant shifts its priorities toward artificial intelligence. Less than 24 hours earlier, the company unveiled a new stock program for six top executives that
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Meta Lays Off 700 in Pivot From Metaverse to AI
"Where possible, we are finding other opportunities for employees whose positions may be impacted.†Meta is laying off about 700 people at Facebook and its VR division reality Labs, according to a new report from CNBC. The layoffs come as Meta seeks to pivot away from its metaverse bet and lean
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Meta lays off hundreds across Reality Labs, recruiting, and sales amid $135B AI bet | TNW
Meta began cutting hundreds of jobs on Wednesday across Reality Labs, Facebook, recruiting, sales, and global operations, according to people familiar with the matter and LinkedIn posts from affected employees. The layoffs are the latest in a rolling series of workforce reductions that have
[5]
Meta lays off 700 workers as AI spending increases
Meta $META is laying off 700 employees across company divisions while introducing a stock compensation program for six executives. According to The New York Times, the affected divisions include Reality Labs, social media, sales, and talent acquisition. These reductions account for a small
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With the Metaverse Canceled and Zuckerberg Training AI to Run the Company, Meta Is Slashing Its Headcount
Can't-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech Intermittent layoffs are the norm at Meta, but it's now carrying them out as its shift towards building AI -- and using it to attempt to speed up its own workforce -- becomes more overt than ever. On Wednesday, the Mark
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Meta lays off hundreds more workers as Mark Zuckerberg pivots away from costly 'metaverse' push
Meta is laying off several hundred employees across key divisions -- including Facebook and its Reality Labs unit -- as it overhauls the company for the artificial intelligence era. The layoffs also come as Meta pulls back from its costly metaverse push after pouring tens of billions into virtual
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Meta overhauling Reality Labs roles into AI- Business Insider By Investing.com
Investing.com-- Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) is overhauling a portion of its Reality Labs division into focusing on artificial intelligence, Business Insider reported on Wednesday, citing a leaked memo. The Instagram owner has overhauled roles, titles, and team structures across a
[9]
Meta to lay off hundreds of employees across departments amid AI push: Report
The total number of impacted employees is expected to remain below 1,000. Meta is reportedly laying off several hundred employees as part of a restructuring effort that affects multiple teams across the company. The job cuts will impact departments including sales, recruiting and the Reality Labs
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Meta laid off approximately 700 employees across Reality Labs, recruiting, and social media divisions as it accelerates its strategic shift to AI. The workforce reductions come as the company plans to spend up to $135 billion on AI infrastructure in 2026, nearly double last year's investment. Meanwhile, Meta unveiled a stock compensation program worth up to $921 million for six top executives.
Meta Announces 700 Job Cuts Amid Strategic Shift to AI
Meta has begun laying off approximately 700 employees as the company intensifies its focus on artificial intelligence, redirecting resources away from divisions that no longer align with CEO Mark Zuckerberg's vision
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. The workforce reductions hit hardest in Reality Labs, the company's virtual reality and metaverse division, along with recruiting, sales, and Facebook's social media operations3
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. These layoffs represent a fraction of Meta's 78,800 employees recorded at the end of January, but they signal a clear pivot from metaverse development toward building advanced AI systems5
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Source: New York Post
In a statement, a Meta spokesperson confirmed that teams across the company regularly restructure to ensure they're positioned to achieve their goals, adding that the company is working to find other opportunities for affected employees where possible
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. The job cuts follow Mark Zuckerberg's January earnings call, where he announced plans to begin "flattening teams" and elevating individual contributors, claiming that projects once requiring large teams can now be accomplished by a single talented person1
.AI Spending Reaches $135 Billion as Meta Doubles Down on Infrastructure
The layoffs coincide with Meta's dramatic escalation in AI infrastructure investment. The company plans to spend between $115 billion and $135 billion on capital expenditures in 2026, nearly double the $72 billion spent in 2025
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. This massive outlay will fund datacenters, GPUs, custom AI chips, and the infrastructure supporting Meta's Llama large language models and efforts to build what Zuckerberg calls "superintelligence"2
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.Total company expenses for 2026 are projected to reach between $162 billion and $167 billion, with operating expenses rising 24 percent during 2025 to $118 billion
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. Analysts at Barclays have forecast a near-90 percent drop in free cash flow as a result of these investments4
. Meta is also designing custom chips for GenAI workloads, with MTIA 300 already in production for ranking and recommendations training, while future iterations will handle inference production into 20271
.Reality Labs Losses Mount as Metaverse Pivot Reverses
Reality Labs has become the epicenter of Meta's workforce reductions, having accumulated approximately $90 billion in cumulative losses since the division's creation
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. The division posted a $19.2 billion operating loss in 2025 alone4
. In January, Meta cut approximately 1,500 positions in Reality Labs, roughly 10 percent of the unit's headcount, and shuttered three VR game studios4
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Source: Quartz
Zuckerberg has indicated that 2026 will be the peak year for Reality Labs losses, with gradual reductions expected as the division shifts focus from VR headsets toward smart glasses and wearable AI devices
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. The company's Ray-Ban smart glasses have sold significantly better than VR headsets, suggesting a different path forward for Meta's hardware ambitions3
.Related Stories
Executive Compensation Rises as Employees Lose Jobs
Less than 24 hours before announcing the 700 layoffs, Meta unveiled a new stock compensation program for six top executives that could increase compensation by as much as $921 million each over the next five years
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. The program benefits Chief Product Officer Chris Cox, Chief Financial Officer Susan Li, Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth, Chief Operating Officer Javier Olivan, President Dina Powell McCormick, and Chief Legal Officer C.J. Mahoney5
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Source: Futurism
The executive options require Meta to achieve a $9 trillion market capitalization by 2031, compared to its current $1.5 trillion valuation
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. Meta framed the move as necessary to retain AI talent in an increasingly competitive landscape, though the timing created a stark contrast between rewarding top leadership while eliminating hundreds of positions2
.Speculation Mounts Over Deeper Cuts and AI Return on Investment
Reuters reported last week that Meta's senior executives had been asked to prepare workforce reduction plans of up to 20 percent, which would translate to approximately 15,000 jobs if fully implemented
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. Meta called that reporting "speculative," but the cadence of cuts suggests the company may be executing a phased reduction rather than a single event4
. If Meta were to follow through with a 20 percent cut, it would bring headcount to its lowest point since 2021, when it had about 58,600 full-time employees1
.The uncertainty extends to Meta's AI investments themselves. Facebook CFO Susan Li acknowledged the unclear path for return on investment during a Morgan Stanley conference, stating: "That's not like, okay, in 2026, the ROI is this in 2027, the ROI is this and so on, which pains me, to be clear. I really wish that, that were the world we live in, but it's not"
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. Meanwhile, the release of Meta's next reasoning model, code-named Avocado, has reportedly been delayed after delivering underwhelming results during internal tests1
.References
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