Meta is laying off approximately 8,000 employees in its largest workforce reduction in years, as the company cites the rising cost of AI investment. An internal memo circulated on Thursday, 23 April 2026, and reported by Bloomberg, confirmed the Meta layoffs. Chief people officer Janelle Gale wrote that the cuts are “part of our continued effort to run the company more efficiently and to allow us to offset the other investments we’re making.”
The Meta layoffs 2026 represent about 10% of the company’s total headcount. Reuters had first alluded to the plan in March; Gale’s memo now confirms they will take effect towards the end of May. She described the move as “the best path forward, given the circumstances,” while acknowledging “this is unwelcome news.”
Meta layoffs 2026: severance and timeline
US employees losing their jobs will receive 16 weeks of base pay, plus two additional weeks for every year of service. Staff outside the US will receive comparable packages, with exact terms varying by country.
Notifications will go out on 20 May, sent by email to both work and personal accounts. Gale acknowledged that the gap between Thursday’s announcement and that notification date “leaves everyone with nearly a month of ambiguity which is incredibly unsettling.” Meta has not disclosed how it will select specific roles.
Hiring freeze on top of the cuts
Alongside the redundancies, Meta is halting previously announced plans to recruit an additional 6,000 people for currently open roles. The company had already made earlier cuts this year, removing 15 positions at its Irish office and cutting 600 roles at Meta’s Superintelligence Labs.
AI investment behind the headcount decision
The layoffs are directly tied to Meta’s accelerating AI spending. Earlier this month, the company agreed to pay CoreWeave around $21 billion for access to its AI cloud infrastructure through December 2032. That deal followed a $14.2 billion contract with CoreWeave signed in September, bringing Meta’s total commitment to the cloud provider to approximately $35 billion.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg has made AI a central priority for Meta over the past two years, directing resources towards large language models, image generation tools, and AI assistant features across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. That infrastructure buildout, now totalling tens of billions in commitments, carries a price tag large enough to reshape the company’s workforce planning.
Microsoft announces buyouts the same week
Meta’s announcement coincides with Microsoft offering voluntary buyouts to US employees at senior director level and below. The scheme applies to workers whose combined age and years of service total 70 or more, covering roughly 7% of Microsoft’s workforce.
The two announcements, released in the same week, reflect a pattern that has emerged across the US tech sector. AI infrastructure buildouts carry enormous upfront costs. Companies are balancing that spend against investor expectations, and workforce reductions have become a common tool for managing the gap. For Meta, with roughly $35 billion committed to CoreWeave alone, the calculation is stark.