Meta lays off hundreds after CEO Mark Zuckerberg said AI can replace

Meta lays off hundreds after CEO Mark Zuckerberg said AI can replace

Meta is slashing hundreds of staff in Silicon Valley as the tech big closely invests in artificial intelligence and weighs axing over 20% of its workforce.

The Facebook dad or mum company is slicing practically 200 employees in the San Francisco Bay Area, according to new state filings.

The reductions will hit 124 staff in Burlingame, Calif. and another 74 in close by Sunnyvale, with the cuts taking impact in late May and all affected positions completely eradicated, filings cited by the San Francisco Chronicle present.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is said to be weighing layoffs that may hit more than 20% of the company’s workforce because it ramps up spending on artificial intelligence. Nathan Posner/Shutterstock

The transfer comes as Meta indicators a large strategic shift — away from labor-heavy operations and towards machine-driven programs, according to consultants. Recent AI efforts embody a deliberate $10 billion spend on Meta’s data middle in El Paso, Texas.

Meanwhile, current weeks have seen the company lay off about 700 staff working in operations, recruiting, sales and Meta’s “Reality Labs” unit, the Chronicle famous.

The company is also weighing far deeper cuts.

Senior staff have reportedly been told to organize for layoffs that may have an effect on more than 20% of the company’s workforce — about 15,000 employees.

“This is a speculative report about theoretical approaches,” a Meta spokesperson said when requested about the plan.

The potential reductions would mark the greatest layoffs at Meta since Zuckerberg oversaw more than 20,000 job cuts during the company’s “year of efficiency” push in 2022 and 2023.

On a Meta earnings name, Zuckerberg said Meta is “starting to see projects that used to require big teams now be accomplished by a single, very talented person,” due to AI instruments.

Meta is slicing practically 200 jobs in the Bay Area as a part of its latest round of layoffs. AP

“When a company is cutting hundreds of people and at the same time gearing up to spend $135 billion on AI, it’s sending a very clear message: the center of gravity is shifting from human-powered operations to machine-augmented operations,” Matt Britton, writer of “Generation AI,” told The Post.

Meta’s Bay Area layoffs are just the latest in a gentle drumbeat of job cuts across the tech sector as corporations guess big on artificial intelligence.

Industrywide, the numbers are staggering. More than 152,000 tech employees had been laid off in 2024, adopted by at the very least 118,000 more in 2025, according to compiled layoff trackers.

So far this 12 months, estimates for layoffs vary from about 45,000 to more than 52,000, a discrepancy that displays how widespread and fast-moving the reductions have turn out to be.

Job cuts in Burlingame and Sunnyvale are set to take impact in late May, according to state filings. AP

At the same time, corporations are pouring unprecedented sums into AI — an funding surge that is reshaping hiring selections.

Major companies including Microsoft and Amazon have announced tens of 1000’s of layoffs over the past two years, often tied to reorganizations and shifting priorities towards AI and cloud computing.

Even corporations that continue hiring are doing so selectively — slicing some roles while aggressively recruiting for AI-related positions.

Salesforce, for instance, has lower more than 1,000 jobs while concurrently hiring employees to assist new AI merchandise, underscoring the uneven impression of the shift.

“Roles built on repeatable, rules-based work are the first to get squeezed,” Britton said.

“Meta isn’t saying ‘we don’t need people.’ It’s saying ‘we don’t need as many people doing what people used to do.’”

The shift is already playing out across departments as soon as thought of core to tech corporations.

Zuckerberg is pouring as much as $135 billion into AI even as Meta cuts jobs across its workforce. Bloomberg by way of Getty Images

Recruiting, buyer assist, basic sales operations and even components of research and development are more and more being dealt with by AI programs, lowering the want for large groups.

“AI is becoming the new fixed cost, and humans are becoming the variable,” Britton said.

Not everyone seems to be satisfied the cuts will stick.

“This is not a clean replacement of humans,” Ravi Sawhney, CEO of RKS Design, told The Post.

“It is a restructuring around perceived efficiency, without fully understanding the human systems that make that efficiency real.”

The Post has sought remark from Meta.

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