Meta will cut roughly 8,000 jobs—about 10% of its global workforce—starting 20 May 2026, according to a Reuters report cited by livemint.com. The first wave is expected to hit Facebook and Instagram teams, with additional rounds planned later this year.
Employees learned of the impending cuts through internal chatter and a viral LinkedIn post by Meta software engineer Adel Wu, livemint.com notes. Staff have responded by hoarding free office snacks, drinks and chargers, while many have begun applying to other companies pre-emptively. The company has not yet released an official list of affected divisions, heightening anxiety across campuses from Menlo Park to Singapore.
The reductions come after Meta trimmed 21,000 positions in 2023-24 and follow similar belt-tightening at Amazon, Google and Microsoft earlier this year. Investors have pressured the social-media giant to curb spending on its multibillion-dollar metaverse and generative-AI bets, which have yet to deliver matching revenue. At roughly 83,000 employees post-cuts, Meta would still be 30% larger than it was in 2020, according to livemint.com’s analysis of company filings.
Affected employees will receive severance packages and immigration support, sources familiar with the plan told Reuters. Meta’s next earnings call on 28 July will be the first public checkpoint for CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s promise of a “year of efficiency”; analysts will watch for any revisions to capital-expenditure guidance tied to the company’s Reality Labs division.