It was only around a month ago that a report started circulating with the suggestion Meta was about to make an immense wave of layoffs, cutting around 20% of its global workforce, removing around 16,000 employees, and all in an effort of further making funding available for its artificial intelligence endeavours.
While this report wasn't entirely accurate, it clearly held some credence, as now it's reported that Meta has begun the process of laying off 8,000 employees, or 10% of its total workforce, all to free up resources for more AI-related investments.
This news was broken by Bloomberg, and soon corroborated by BBC News, with staff supposedly being informed yesterday, on April 23, with this move also coinciding with Meta closing around 6,000 open job listings.
Meta has steadily been reducing its workforce over the years, with frequent layoff rounds happening. This wave will be the largest the company has initiated since 2023, showing that spending on AI is becoming increasingly important to the technology and social media behemoth.