Notices started going out to employees on Wednesday morning as Meta begins laying off 8,000 employees, or 10% of its workforce, while pouring billions of dollars into AI.
The company said in an internal memo last month that the planned dismissals will allow it to operate more efficiently while it increases AI spending.
How many Seattle-area workers will be losing their jobs, if any, is not yet known. The layoffs apply to employees around the globe.
The parent company of Facebook and Instagram has about 7,500 to 8,000 workers in the Puget Sound region.
The company told employees last month it would carry out the layoffs on May 20.
Meta has said that its highest priority is advancing in the AI industry, which features powerful players like Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic. Zuckerberg’s company launched the first large language model from its Superintelligence Labs, which it plans on investing billions into, last month. The founder said the model, Muse Spark, was a milestone for Meta’s goal of creating artificial assistants for everyone.
As part of the restructuring, Meta also plans to move more than 7,000 people to work on new initiatives around AI.
Leaders told staff they are not ruling out further job cuts.
It’s already been a brutal year for big-name companies in Washington state.
According to the Washington State Employment Security Department, nearly 500 Meta workers have already lost their jobs since the start of the year.
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More than 400 lost their jobs at Amazon, 162 at Expedia, and nearly 100 at Snap, the parent company of Snapchat.
