Meta cuts hundreds of employees and continues to ramp up AI investments

ME News update, April 3 (UTC+8), Meta is cutting several hundred employees in Silicon Valley, while the tech giant is also making large investments in artificial intelligence and is considering cutting more than 20% of its total workforce. According to the latest state government filing, the Facebook parent company will lay off nearly 200 employees in the San Francisco Bay Area. The layoffs will affect 124 employees in Burlingame, California, as well as 74 employees in nearby Sunnyvale. The documents show that the layoffs will take effect in late May, and all affected positions will be permanently eliminated. Experts say this move indicates that Meta is undergoing a major strategic transformation------from an operations model primarily driven by large human teams to a machine-driven system. Meta’s recent AI-related initiatives include plans to invest $10 billion in a data center in El Paso, Texas. Meta is also considering an even larger round of layoffs. Senior employees have been told to prepare for layoffs that could impact more than 20% of the company’s employees------about 15k employees. In response to this plan, a Meta spokesperson said: “This is speculative reporting about a theoretical proposal.” If the layoffs go through, this would be Meta’s largest round of layoffs since Zuckerberg’s “efficiency year” push in 2022 and 2023, when the company laid off more than 20k employees. During a Meta earnings call, Zuckerberg said that because of the adoption of AI tools, Meta has started to “see projects that used to require large teams being completed now by one very talented person.” (Source: ChainCatcher)