Hundreds of Meta employees, including those from the Reality Labs division, have lost their jobs as part of the company's cost-cutting measures. This move comes as Meta looks to offset its significant investments in AI infrastructure, including plans to spend $600 billion on data centers by 2028. The layoffs are a blow to the company's VR and metaverse bets, which have lost over $70 billion since the beginning of 2021. Despite the company's pivot from social media to the metaverse in 2021, Meta's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, is now focusing on the company's AI capabilities.
Meta's workforce stood at around 79,000 people at the end of 2025, and the company has reportedly asked some managers to prepare cost-cutting plans. The layoffs are said to affect various divisions, including recruiting, sales, Facebook, and global operations. This is not the first time Reality Labs has faced cuts, as over 1,000 jobs were shed from the division in January.
The company's focus on AI investments and its plans for a lucrative new incentive system for six executives have raised eyebrows. The executives, including CTO Andrew Bosworth, CFO Susan Li, COO Javier Olivan, and CPO Chris Cox, could reportedly receive up to $2.7 billion each in stock-based compensation tied to performance.
||| Meta's drastic cost-cutting measures and focus on AI investments are a significant development in the tech industry. As companies like Meta invest heavily in AI, it's clear that this trend will have far-reaching implications for the global tech landscape.
