en.Wedoany.com Reported - Meta issued an internal memo to its global workforce on May 18, detailing the structural adjustment plan for its "full pivot to AI." Chief People Officer Janelle Gale confirmed in the memo that the company will cut 10% of its global workforce, approximately 7,800 people, with layoff notifications officially sent on May 20 local time, and further deep cuts planned for later this year. Simultaneously, Meta will reassign about 7,000 employees to new projects related to AI workflows and close 6,000 vacant open positions. The combined layoffs and transfers directly impact roughly 20% of the company's workforce.
The memo outlines the core logic of Meta's restructuring—reshaping the organizational architecture using AI-native design principles. Gale explicitly wrote that many department heads have already incorporated AI-native design principles when designing new structures, and the company has entered a phase where it can operate with a flatter structure. Teams will run in smaller pods or cohorts to achieve faster response speeds and greater autonomy. Management layers are being reduced simultaneously, with some management positions eliminated. The similar restructuring model previously initiated by Reality Labs is now expanding to more departments.
The 7,000 reassigned employees will be allocated to four newly established AI organizations. According to the destinations listed in the memo, these include Applied AI Engineering (AAI), Agent Transformation Accelerator (ATA) XFN, Central Analytics, and an Enterprise Solutions team whose details have not yet been disclosed. The AAI and ATA teams were previously announced by Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth and are part of Meta's "AI-Enabled Work" initiative, with the core task of developing AI agents capable of autonomously performing work currently done by human employees. Central Analytics focuses on providing productivity and data analysis support for agent development.
The timing and execution method for these layoffs have been clearly defined. The memo required employees in North America to work from home on May 20, with layoff notifications sent in three batches starting at 4:00 a.m. local time. Due to time zone differences across Asia-Pacific, Europe, and the Americas, affected employees might receive notifications late at night or early in the morning. This arrangement has sparked strong resistance among employees—some posted protest flyers in offices, over 1,000 employees signed a petition opposing the company's installation of mouse-tracking software used to train AI models, and the internal communication platform Workplace saw persistent responses to executive posts using elephant emojis, directly pointing to the layoff plan as "the elephant in the room."
The causal relationship between financial data and this round of layoffs is equally clear. Meta achieved revenue of $56.3 billion in the first quarter of 2026, with capital expenditure climbing to an annualized rate of $145 billion. The company's full-year capital expenditure guidance issued in April ranged between $125 billion and $145 billion, nearly double the $72.2 billion spent in 2025. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained the financial logic behind the layoffs to employees in a previous all-hands meeting: "We mainly have two major cost centers—computing infrastructure and people-related matters." He refused to rule out further layoffs and stated the company would concentrate resources on the massive infrastructure required for AI computing power and model training.
Meta's total headcount stood at 77,986 as of the end of March. This round of layoffs affects about 7,800 people, combined with 7,000 reassignments and the closure of 6,000 open positions, resulting in an overall workforce structure adjustment of approximately 20,800 people. The memo also hinted that the layoffs starting on May 20 are not the end, and the company does not rule out further headcount reductions subsequently. At the employee level, this persistent uncertainty has translated into deep-seated anxiety within the organization—anonymous employees told foreign media that the first thing they do upon waking up every day is check their email to confirm if they still have a job, and taking mental health leave has almost become an open secret among staff.
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