Meta initiates mass layoff, nearly 3,700 employees to be affected
What's the story
Meta has kicked off a major redundancy process today, one that is likely to affect around 5% of its global workforce.
This means roughly 3,700 employees will be losing their jobs.
The news of the looming job cut first broke last month when CEO Mark Zuckerberg indicated his plan in a leaked memo "to move out low-performers faster" and "raise the bar on performance management."
Strategic changes
Meta's strategic shift in 2025
Zuckerberg has called 2025 an "intense year" for Meta, with a strategic emphasis on major AI investments. This involves hiring more machine learning engineers.
Peng Fan, VP of Engineering for Monetization at Meta, has asked employees to "assist with an expedited hiring process for machine learning engineers" and other "business critical" engineering roles.
The recruitment drive will be held from February 11 to March 13.
Termination process
Meta's performance terminations begin today
Meta has confirmed the termination notices were sent to staffers this morning.
A company spokesperson told The Register, "These are performance terminations which were already announced in mid-January."
The company had previously laid off 11,000 employees in late 2022 and another 10,000 in 2023.
Meta had justified the layoffs by saying it had hired too quickly during the COVID-19 crisis and business reality no longer matched costs.
Future investments
Meta's AI development and smart glasses focus
Meta plans to invest $60 billion in AI development this year. The company will also continue to focus on smart glasses despite the uncertain results from its previous virtual reality investments.
Meta has also eliminated fact-checking in the US to prioritize free speech, as Donald Trump returned to the White House as President.
In 2024, Meta posted a net profit of $62.36 billion, a 59% year-on-year increase. This was fueled by a 22% increase in revenue to $164.5 billion.