Technology giant Meta Platforms (META) is undertaking 8,000 job cuts worldwide as part of an artificial intelligence (A.I.) efficiency push.
The social media company behind Facebook and Instagram has begun alerting thousands of employees that they’re being laid off, part of a restructuring aimed at reducing costs.
Management at Meta Platforms has said that savings from the job cuts will be invested in the company’s A.I. capital expenditures that are expected to reach $145 billion U.S. this year.
The latest workforce reduction is widespread and spans the globe, including North America, Asia and Europe.
Meta is planning to cut 20% of its Irish workforce, or as many as 350 jobs. Dublin is the company’s European headquarters.
Staff are being encouraged to work from home while the cuts are initiated. This latest round of layoffs is expected to hit Meta’s engineering and product teams particularly hard.
In addition to the cuts, Meta is redeploying about 7,000 workers to newly formed teams that are focused on various A.I. initiatives across the company.
Meta Platforms had 80,000 employees at the end of March this year, meaning the new round of layoffs will reduce the company’s workforce by 10%.
META stock has declined 5% in the past 12 months to trade at $602.61 U.S. per share.
