Social media giant Meta on Thursday announced plans to lay off about 8,000 employees, or about 10% of its workforce, as it looks to increase development of artificial intelligence (AI) applications.
The owner of messaging app WhatsApp as well as social media platforms Facebook and Instagram said in an internal memo that the first round of cuts will take place on May 20. With the cuts, Meta said 6,000 more posts will remain vacant.
Also on Thursday, US media reported that tech giant Microsoft was planning to offer voluntary early retirement buyouts for about 8,700 employees, or about 7% of its workforce.
Large-scale AI investment
The job cuts come as both companies are increasing spending on developing AI applications.
Meta has announced plans to develop “personal superintelligence”, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg said would tailor AI agents to the needs and desires of individual users.
Zuckerberg wrote in July 2025, “Personal supercomputers that know us deeply, understand our goals, and can help us achieve them will be by far the most useful. Personal devices like glasses that understand our context because they can see what we see, hear what we hear, and interact with us throughout the day will become our primary computing devices.”
Meta has warned investors that spending on infrastructure costs and hiring AI experts will rise to $169 billion in 2026.
Microsoft is spending billions of dollars expanding its global network of cloud computing and data centers that power AI systems like Copilot. Investor concerns about the cost and ultimate profitability of data centers have weighed heavily on Microsoft’s share price over the past 6 months.
The Early Retirement Buyout Program is the first for the legacy tech giant, established in 1975.
Edited by: Carl Sexton