Meta cuts 8,000 jobs amid AI push

Meta Inc. began cutting thousands of jobs Wednesday morning as it transforms into an artificial intelligence-first company.

Employees at Facebook and Instagram’s parent company were told last month that about 8,000 employees would lose their jobs in May in a major AI restructuring. This week we learned that another 7,000 employees will be reassigned to new roles centered around AI.

Workers in Singapore began receiving emails about their layoffs around 4 a.m. local time. A layoff email was sent out and Meta employees were told to work remotely.

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It was not immediately clear Wednesday how the layoffs would affect Meta employees, who are based in Austin and work in high-rise offices downtown. Meta did not respond to requests for comment.

The layoffs represent approximately 10% of the company’s workforce. Opportunity Austin employed about 78,000 people at the end of last year, about 2,000 of them in the Austin metropolitan area, according to the latest employment numbers.

The company said in an email last month that it plans to close about 6,000 additional open positions to offset other spending the company is currently making.

Meta Platforms Inc. has spent more than $70 billion on AI, including data centers and chips, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg told investors the company plans to spend $115 billion to $135 billion on AI this year.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said in the past that he believes many of the jobs done in the technology industry today will soon be replaced by AI. Like many tech executives, Zuckerberg has spearheaded major AI investments. Although Meta has made great strides in recent years, it lags behind OpenAI and Google in developing its underlying models.

Companies such as OpenAI, Tesla Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Apple Inc., Meta Platforms Inc., and Microsoft Corp. are expected to spend more than $650 billion on AI infrastructure this year alone.

Earlier this year, Meta closed three Austin-based game studios and laid off about 100 employees as part of a larger exit from virtual reality and wearables.

But social media companies aren’t the only companies cutting jobs to support AI efforts.

more: Amid tech layoffs and artificial intelligence spending, Texas lags behind AI job growth

LinkedIn cut about 5% of its workforce last week, including about 600 people in California. Networking giant Cisco last week announced plans to cut 4,000 employees in an AI-driven initiative. Microsoft, Block, and Coinbase have announced layoffs or acquisitions to support large-scale AI spending. It’s still unclear how the Austin-based employees of those companies have been affected.

Expedia cut about 100 jobs in Austin in February as part of a broader restructuring effort.

This year, Austin-based Oracle also cut its workforce significantly, cutting an estimated 25,000 to 30,000 jobs worldwide. Several Austin employees posted on social media confirming that they, along with their entire team, have lost their jobs.

Round Rock’s Dell Technologies has been quietly cutting much of its global workforce over the past few years, including eliminating about 11,000 roles in 2025.