--- title: "Meta began large-scale layoffs this week, exposing the harsh realities of the AI industry under Mark Zuckerberg's leadership" type: "News" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/286789783.md" description: "Meta Platforms will launch a new round of layoffs this week, planning to cut 8,000 positions, and may continue layoffs in August and the fall. Mark Zuckerberg previously apologized for the blind hiring during the pandemic, but his attitude towards layoffs has changed, calling them a necessary measure to improve efficiency. At the same time, Meta is increasing its investment in artificial intelligence, with capital expenditures expected to rise to $145 billion by 2026. There has been no apology for this round of layoffs, and internal employees feel uneasy" datetime: "2026-05-18T14:50:44.000Z" locales: - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/286789783.md) - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/286789783.md) - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/286789783.md) --- # Meta began large-scale layoffs this week, exposing the harsh realities of the AI industry under Mark Zuckerberg's leadership **Key Points** 1. Meta Group will launch a new round of layoffs this week, planning to cut a total of 8,000 positions. 2. Insiders revealed that the company will face multiple rounds of layoffs this year, with another round possibly starting in August, and further reductions planned for the fall. 3. Since the end of 2022, when the pandemic benefits faded, Meta has initiated large-scale layoffs, and founder Mark Zuckerberg's attitude towards layoffs has undergone a significant change. On September 17, 2025, in Menlo Park, California, at the Meta Developer Conference, CEO Mark Zuckerberg wore Meta co-branded Ray-Ban smart glasses to launch new smart wearable products. As early as the end of 2022, when Zuckerberg announced layoffs of 11,000 employees (which later expanded to 21,000), he sincerely apologized to all employees, admitting that the company had blindly overhired during the pandemic. At that time, Meta's stock price plummeted, and Zuckerberg stated in an internal letter: "This is my decision-making mistake, and I am willing to take full responsibility." At the beginning of 2023, he reiterated that layoffs were a necessary measure for the company's implementation of the **Year of Efficiency** strategy. More than three years later, a new round of large-scale layoffs is set to officially begin this week, and the management's attitude has changed dramatically. This round of layoffs will start on Wednesday, with Meta planning to reduce approximately 8,000 employees; combined with the content of the internal layoff memo from April, the company is also canceling the recruitment plan for 6,000 vacant positions. Previously, Meta had already reduced its workforce: in January this year, about 1,000 employees were laid off from its Reality Labs division, and in March, hundreds more were cut, while terminating many collaborations with third-party contractors responsible for content moderation. While continuously streamlining its workforce, Meta is also heavily investing in the artificial intelligence sector. Last month, the company raised its capital expenditure expectations for 2026 by $10 billion, with a maximum budget reaching **$145 billion**. A week before officially announcing this round of layoffs and raising capital expenditure expectations, Meta informed employees that the layoffs were aimed at continuously improving operational efficiency, thereby freeing up funds for other strategic investments. This time, Zuckerberg did not make any apologies, and Meta's official response to related matters was also declined. **Internal Anxiety, Layoff Wave to Continue This Year** Several current and former employees who wished to remain anonymous revealed that there is a widespread atmosphere of panic within the company. Industry sources indicate that in addition to this round of layoffs, further layoffs will occur in August and the second half of the year. Meta's Chief Financial Officer Susan Li admitted during the first-quarter earnings call that management currently **cannot determine the optimal workforce size for the company in the future**. When discussing AI investments, she stated that even though the company has significantly expanded its computing resources, it continues to underestimate the actual computing power needed as AI technology rapidly evolves and various new projects are continuously launched Looking at the entire technology industry, the current situation is quite contradictory: stock prices of tech giants are rising, valuations of AI startups are soaring, yet companies are laying off employees en masse under the wave of artificial intelligence adoption. According to workplace statistics platforms, from 2026 to now, 137 tech companies have laid off nearly 110,000 people in total, with about 125,000 layoffs occurring last year. At the current pace, the scale of layoffs in the tech industry this year may approach the peak of 2023, when over 260,000 layoffs occurred across the industry after the pandemic hiring spree ended. **AI replacing human labor has become an industry consensus** The strategic director of a headhunting agency stated that AI replacing human labor is now an inevitable trend, putting immense pressure on workers, but the capital market recognizes this very well. While the pandemic hiring mistakes could be actively acknowledged and remedied, the market has long accepted that job positions being replaced by artificial intelligence is an inevitable trend. If companies do not streamline their workforce in line with this trend, they will inevitably face shareholder dissatisfaction. Tech giant Cisco also announced last week that it would lay off nearly 4,000 employees when releasing its financial report. Its CEO publicly stated: the winners in the AI era will be those companies that can accurately focus on their sectors, seize opportunities, and continuously invest in high-demand, long-term value areas. Boosted by better-than-expected performance and an upward adjustment in AI infrastructure investment expectations, Cisco's stock price surged over 13% in a single day, marking its best single-day increase since 2011. Cisco CEO **Capital market pessimistic about Meta, internal conflicts intensify** Wall Street capital is not optimistic about Meta's development layout, primarily due to its scattered AI strategic layout and uncertain direction. Since the beginning of this year, Meta's stock price has dropped about 7%, with a nearly 5% decline over the past year, performing weakly among large tech companies, only better than Microsoft. Compared to external market concerns, the anxiety among Meta's internal employees is even stronger. Many long-term employees have begun to question the development path under the leadership of the AI head and are considering switching to other AI sector companies for new opportunities. Research data from workplace anonymous platforms clearly reflect the gloomy atmosphere within the company: compared to the peak in the second quarter of 2024, current employee satisfaction with Meta has dropped by 25%, and the corporate culture score has plummeted by 39%; all dimensions of scoring, except for salary and benefits, have declined significantly, lagging far behind peers like Amazon, Google, and Netflix. To fully accelerate AI development, Meta recently launched an employee behavior monitoring system that automatically collects data on employees' mouse operations and keyboard inputs on their office computers. This project aims to train intelligent office programs to independently complete programming and various clerical tasks. This monitoring tool has sparked strong resistance from employees, who openly express that this move is filled with dystopian overtones and worry about personal privacy data leaks; many employees have also reported that the operating speed of office equipment has noticeably slowed down, and workplace dissatisfaction continues to escalate Currently, employees have initiated an online petition, jointly calling on Zuckerberg and the management to halt the data monitoring project. The petition states: Collecting and misappropriating personal office data for AI training without employee consent seriously infringes on employee privacy and violates the principle of workplace trust. No company has the right to exploit employee rights under the guise of technological development. Relevant professors in academia analyze that many companies are making large-scale adjustments to their personnel structures under the wave of artificial intelligence transformation. Some companies create workplace pressure through layoffs and AI transformation, forcing internal cultural innovation; however, many companies lack reasonable management methods and have failed to smoothly promote workplace intelligent transformation, ultimately exacerbating internal conflicts ### Related Stocks - [META.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/META.US.md) - [METU.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/METU.US.md) - [FBL.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/FBL.US.md) - [METW.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/METW.US.md) - [MSFT.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/MSFT.US.md) - [AMZN.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/AMZN.US.md) - [GOOGL.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/GOOGL.US.md) - [GOOG.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/GOOG.US.md) - [NFLX.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/NFLX.US.md) - [CSCO.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/CSCO.US.md) ## Related News & Research - [Meta to cut 8,000 jobs as $145B AI push accelerates](https://longbridge.com/en/news/286631224.md) - [EXCLUSIVE-Meta lays out plans for May 20 layoffs, restructuring, internal document says](https://longbridge.com/en/news/286809586.md) - [What Is Going On With Meta Stock On Monday?](https://longbridge.com/en/news/286790893.md) - [Meta to launch 'Incognito Chat' for private AI conversations on WhatsApp](https://longbridge.com/en/news/286274974.md) - [Meta's AI Chief Rejects 'Incorrect' Claims Of Mark Zuckerberg's Big-Money Talent Poaching: 'People Joined Because...'](https://longbridge.com/en/news/286554315.md)