Meta reportedly to cut about 10% of staff in May — biggest cull since 2022–23

Massive round of layoffs, bigger shift to AI

It has been reported that Meta will begin a fresh round of large-scale layoffs on May 20, trimming roughly 10% of its global workforce — about 8,000 employees — with additional reductions planned for later in 2026, Reuters sources told ifeng. Reportedly the move is part of a broader reorganization that aims to flatten management, redeploy engineers and accelerate the company’s pivot to application-level artificial intelligence.

Reorg details and company posture

Meta, the Menlo Park company that owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has already moved teams inside Reality Labs and shifted engineers into a new app-AI group focused on building AI agents that can write code and execute complex tasks. It has been reported that some employees may be reassigned to the recently formed Meta Small Business unit. The company employed nearly 79,000 people as of Dec. 31. Meta reported revenue of over $200 billion and roughly $60 billion in profit last year, even as it pours capital into AI.

A familiar pattern — why now?

Why prune when the business remains profitable? Executives have framed the cuts as a push for efficiency and faster decision-making as Meta doubles down on AI, echoing the “year of efficiency” restructuring CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced after 2022–23 cuts that eliminated about 21,000 jobs. For employees it means redeployments, exits or uncertain waits; for the industry it signals that even cash-rich tech giants are reorganizing aggressively to claim leadership in generative and agentic AI.

Wider context: industry and geopolitics

The move comes amid a global shakeup in tech: U.S. firms are racing to commercialize AI while navigating supply-chain pressures and heightened U.S.-China tech competition. Chinese platforms such as Alibaba (阿里巴巴), Tencent (腾讯) and Baidu (百度) have also been recalibrating strategy toward cloud and AI amid regulatory and economic headwinds. Observers will watch whether Meta’s cuts sharpen its AI product roadmap — and how regulators, employees and markets respond when the first tranche of job notices arrives.