Meta, the global tech powerhouse, has initiated an extensive downsizing initiative, beginning with an announcement to its Singaporean employees. The company plans a 10% reduction of its workforce across the globe, also affecting team members in the US and the UK. As the process unfolds, employees have been advised to work remotely.
This current layoff phase is projected to have a significant impact on Meta’s product and engineering teams. Insiders suggest that additional cuts could follow later in 2026. However, this information has not yet been made public.
As part of its strategic restructuring, Meta has reassigned approximately 7,000 employees to newly-formed teams. These groups are centered around artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives, including the development of AI products and agents.
Committed to its AI focus, Meta has earmarked over US$100 billion for AI capital expenditures in 2026. As of March’s end, Meta’s employee count stood just shy of 80,000, prior to the announced layoffs and reassignments.
Janelle Gale, Meta’s Head of People, has explained that these changes allow for a streamlined, efficient organizational structure. Smaller, agile teams or “pods” can work at a quicker pace and with a greater sense of ownership. Gale expressed confidence that this approach would bolster productivity and elevate job satisfaction.
Over recent years, Meta has repeatedly downsized its workforce as part of continuous efficiency pursuits, championed by CEO Mark Zuckerberg. He has urged engineers to leverage AI agents for coding and other functions, proposed device monitoring strategies to enhance technology, and developed his own AI-assistant for handling CEO-related tasks, such as collating employee feedback. The cumulative impact of these job cuts and reassignments is expected to affect approximately 20% of the company’s workforce.
However, this drastic change has not been quietly accepted by all. Many Meta employees have expressed their dissent, distributing protest flyers at company offices and posting criticisms on its internal communications platform, Workplace. A petition against the proposed installation of mouse-tracking software — designed to train Meta’s AI models by monitoring human-computer interaction — has already garnered over 1,000 signatures.
The wider tech industry is also wrestling with the implications of AI advancement. Rising stock prices and the burgeoning valuation of AI startups contrast starkly with the increasing job cuts. In 2026 alone, nearly 110,000 job positions have been eliminated across 137 tech companies, trending towards a repeat of the 2023 peak. That year, over 260,000 workers were laid off in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic’s hiring surge.
Why is Meta initiating these layoffs?
Meta is restructuring to focus on AI initiatives and streamline its structure, aiming for greater efficiency and productivity.
What roles are affected by these layoffs?
The layoffs are expected to significantly impact Meta’s engineering and product teams.
How has the downsizing been received by the company’s employees?
There has been considerable backlash among Meta employees, with protests and a petition against the proposed use of mouse-tracking software to train AI models.
