Meta starts eliminating jobs in shift to find AI talent to dominate race

By Kurt Wagner and Riley Griffin 

Meta Platforms Inc. began notifying staff of job cuts on Monday, kick-starting a process that will terminate thousands of people as the company cracks down on “low-performers” and scours for new talent to dominate the AI race.  

Meta workers who were let go were notified via email, and the company is offering US-based employees severance packages that include 16 weeks of salary, in addition two weeks for each year of service, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because the details weren’t public. Employees whose review merited a bonus will still get one, and staff will still receive stock awards as part of the upcoming vesting cycle later this month, the people said. 

 

Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg told employees that Meta would cut 5 per cent of its workforce — as many 3,600 people — with a focus on staff who “aren’t meeting expectations,” Bloomberg News first reported in mid-January. Affected US-based employees would be notified on Feb. 10, while international employees could learn later, Zuckerberg said last month. 

 

In a separate message to managers, the Facebook co-founder said the cuts would create headcount for the company to hire the “strongest talent.” 

 

Job cuts have been consistent at Meta in recent years. The company laid off thousands of employees in 2022 and 2023 as part of an efficiency push. The latest wave of firings are expected to be completed by the end of the performance cycle that goes through February. They come as Meta seeks to beat out competitors including OpenAI and DeepSeek in a fast-moving artificial intelligence race. 

 

Zuckerberg told investors in late January that Meta anticipates eventually spending hundreds of billions of dollars on AI infrastructure. The Menlo Park, California-based company is applying AI across its range of apps and business units, from social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook to virtual reality glasses.