Layoffs at Meta: The sector is shrinking
Meta is considering significant staff reductions to alleviate the financial burden brought on by rising artificial intelligence investments and to make company operations more efficient. Sources close to the matter point out that there could be a reduction of over 20 percent in the company's total headcount.
12punto
It is alleged that Meta is working on a large-scale layoff program, particularly after the massive budgets allocated to artificial intelligence technologies disrupted the company's budget balance. According to information leaked from the company, the termination of more than 20 percent of its employees is on the agenda. Sources also state that final decisions regarding the exact timing of the layoffs and the areas to be affected have not yet been finalized.
Among the claims is that the upper management of Meta has asked team leaders to prepare downsizing plans. Speaking on the matter, company spokesperson Andy Stone stated, "This is a speculative report about theoretical approaches."
According to current data, Meta's global headcount is known to be approximately 79 thousand based on the latest figures. The company previously laid off 11 thousand employees in November 2022 and initiated a new layoff process for 10 thousand people within the following few months. At that time, these figures corresponded to 13 percent of the total workforce.
INTENSE COMPETITION AND GIANT INVESTMENTS IN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Under the leadership of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the firm's focus has recently shifted toward generative artificial intelligence efforts. The company had shown interest in leading artificial intelligence researchers for its newly established "super intelligence" team with offers reaching hundreds of millions of dollars for four-year terms in some positions.
Allocating significant resources to data center infrastructure, Meta shared its goal with the public to invest approximately 600 billion dollars in this area by 2028. Additionally, it recently acquired the artificial intelligence-focused social media platform Moltbook. It had previously been reported that at least 2 billion dollars was spent on the acquisition of the Chinese artificial intelligence startup Manus.
In an interview in January, Mark Zuckerberg emphasized that artificial intelligence investments have provided a serious increase in the company's overall efficiency, stating, "We are starting to see that we can complete tasks with a single highly talented person that previously could only be solved by large teams."
SIMILAR DOWNSIZING TREND IN THE SECTOR
Outside of Meta, similar waves of layoffs are occurring at other major US-based technology companies during the same period. In January, Amazon announced that it would terminate the jobs of approximately 16 thousand employees. Last month, the financial technology company Block Inc. reduced its workforce by nearly half. Block Inc. CEO Jack Dorsey stated that the efficiency provided by artificial intelligence tools was effective in this decision.
Some issues encountered with the Llama 4 models, which were announced last year as part of Meta's artificial intelligence investments, have also remained on the agenda. Criticisms directed at the company focused on the fact that the benchmarks chosen in early versions led to misleading results. The largest model, which was planned to be named "Behemoth," had been canceled after the initial phase.
In the new period, Meta's super intelligence unit continues its efforts to bring the model codenamed "Avocado" to life. However, internal sources also express that the initial results obtained have not yet reached the level expected from this new system.