Meta says it will lay off 10% of its workforce

Tech NewsMeta says it will lay off 10% of its workforceMeta planned to double its AI spending in 2026 to about $135 billion from $72 billion last year. Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta Platforms Inc., exits Los Angeles Superior Court on Feb. 18. Kyle Grillot / Bloomberg via Getty Images fileShareAdd NBC News to GoogleApril 23, 2026, 3:27 PM EDTBy Rob Wile and Emily LorschMeta is planning to lay off approximately 8,000 employees and eliminate another 6,000 open roles as it seeks to reduce costs amid its massive bet on artificial intelligence.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.With approximately 78,000 employees at the end of 2025, the cuts will affect about 10% of the company’s existing workforce. In an internal memo, a Meta executive did not explicitly mention AI when discussing the cuts but said they were needed to compensate for spending elsewhere. Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, planned to double its AI spending in 2026 to about $135 billion from $72 billion last year. “We’re doing this as part of our continued effort to run the company more efficiently and to allow us to offset the other investments we’re making,” Janelle Gale, Meta’s chief people officer, said in the memo to employees. “This is not an easy tradeoff and it will mean letting go of people who have made meaningful contributions to Meta during their time here.”The internal memo was first reported by Bloomberg News. A representative for the company confirmed to NBC News that the report was accurate. Reuters first reported on Meta’s planned workforce reductions last week and said more were planned for later this year.Layoffs directly attributable to AI, where human roles are explicitly replaced with some form of non-human labor, remain relatively rare.Instead, many companies are dramatically scaling back hiring for roles that existing employees might be able to perform w...