Meta Begins Laying Off Up to 20% of Workforce to Focus on AI
By Reuters | 26 Mar, 2026

This week's job cuts are to the Reality Labs division, social media teams and recruiting operations.

Meta Platforms is laying off a few hundred people across multiple teams on Wednesday, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Reuters reported earlier this month that Meta was planning sweeping layoffs that could affect 20% or more of the company's workforce and that top executives had signaled the plans to other senior leaders and told them to begin planning how to pare back.

Wednesday's layoffs were on a smaller scale. According to an earlier report in The Information, the cuts would affect Meta's Reality Labs division, social media teams and recruiting operations.

"Teams across Meta regularly restructure or implement changes to ensure they’re in the best position to achieve their goals. Where possible, we are finding other opportunities for employees whose positions may be impacted,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement.

The Facebook parent is seeking to offset rising costs tied to massive investments in artificial intelligence, having forecast total expenses of $162 billion to $169 billion in 2026, and rising employee compensation as the company spends millions to hire top AI talent. 

Meta had nearly 79,000 employees as of December 31, according to its annual filing.

(Reporting by Katie Paul in New York and Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Sahal Muhammed and Bill Berkrot)