Mark Zuckerberg Says Meta Could Face Deeper Layoffs
mark zuckerberg told Meta employees that AI automation is not the driving factor behind the company’s layoffs. The harder message came from Janelle Gale: Meta is not ruling out deeper cuts beyond the around 10% of staff it plans to lay off next month.
Janelle Gale on deeper cuts
Gale told employees in an internal meeting on Thursday, "Will there be more layoffs? The question always comes up. I'd love to say that there are no more layoffs, but I can't say something we can't deliver," which leaves workers with a narrower read on their job security than the next-month reduction alone suggested.
She also said, "While the business is strong, priorities change, competition is fierce, and we will continue to manage our costs responsibly." That points to a restructuring that is still active, not one that stops after the current round.
Meta's 10% cut next month
Meta plans to lay off around 10% of its staff next month, and Gale said some organizations would be more affected than others. For employees, that means the cut is not being treated as a flat companywide trim, so the impact can land unevenly across teams.
Gale also said Meta will continue to evolve teams as needed and try to redeploy talent. Meta said the layoffs hit morale at the company, and it has tripled COBRA healthcare coverage to 18 months.
AI spending at Meta
Meta leaders said during the meeting that AI token usage would not be considered as a factor for the layoffs. Zuckerberg said AI has made small teams far more efficient, while also addressing Meta's plan to monitor employees' keystrokes and mouse movements to improve its AI models.
He said, "humans are not actually watching what the staff are doing" and that the data is abstracted and used to improve AI. Alexandr Wang appeared at the meeting and praised Meta's latest AI prowess, including the recent release of its Spark model.
The company is also doubling infrastructure spend, largely for AI, to a range of $125 billion to $145 billion this year. Susan Li said on Wednesday that she "doesn't really know" the ideal size of Meta's head count, and reported in March that Meta plans to cut about 20% of its total staff this year.
For employees, the immediate question is not whether one round is coming. It is how much wider the cuts may go if Meta keeps reshaping teams while spending more on AI infrastructure.
