Meta announced on Thursday that it will be reducing its workforce by approximately 8,000 employees, representing about 10% of its total staff. The company stated that these layoffs are part of an efficiency drive to enable new investments in different areas of its business. Notably, Meta will also not be filling around 6,000 vacant positions.
The move comes as Meta, like other tech firms such as Oracle, faces increasing expenses related to artificial intelligence infrastructure. The company has already indicated to investors that its costs in 2026 are expected to rise significantly, ranging from $162 billion US to $169 billion US. This spike is primarily attributed to infrastructure investments and the high salaries of AI experts that Meta has been hiring.
Analyst Dan Ives from Wedbush viewed Meta’s decision positively, seeing it as a strategic shift towards utilizing AI technologies to automate tasks previously handled by large teams. This transformation aims to streamline operations, cut costs, and maintain productivity by fostering a more efficient operational structure.
The specific locations where the job cuts will occur within Meta, which has offices in Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal, remain undisclosed.
In a separate development, Microsoft revealed on the same day that it will be offering voluntary buyouts to thousands of its U.S. employees. The software giant is planning to extend these offers to approximately 8,750 individuals, equating to seven percent of its U.S. workforce. Microsoft, headquartered in Redmond, Washington, has been heavily investing in global data centers to support cloud services, AI systems, and its suite of productivity tools, including the AI assistant Copilot.
Microsoft’s Chief People Officer, Amy Coleman, shared details of the voluntary retirement program in a memo earlier reported by CNBC. Coleman expressed that the company hopes this initiative will provide eligible employees with the opportunity to transition on their own terms, with substantial support from Microsoft. This marks the first time in Microsoft’s 51-year history that such buyouts have been offered.