Meta could cut as much as 20% of its global workforce as the social media giant ramps up spending on AI infrastructure and automation.

Sources familiar with the matter told Reuters the company is considering sweeping layoffs that could affect more than one in five employees, although the exact scale and timing of the cuts have not been finalised.

Meta employed nearly 79,000 people as of December 2025. If the reported 20% reduction proceeds, the move could eliminate roughly 15,000 to 16,000 roles – potentially the company’s largest workforce reduction since its “year of efficiency” restructuring in 2022–2023.

Senior executives have reportedly informed other leaders internally to begin planning how teams could be reduced, according to people familiar with the discussions.

Meta spokesperson Andy Stone responded to reports by saying the claims were speculative.

“This is speculative reporting about theoretical approaches,” Stone said.

The potential layoffs come as Meta dramatically increases its investment in AI to compete with rivals such as Google and OpenAI.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been aggressively building a new “superintelligence” AI research team, reportedly offering some leading researchers compensation packages worth hundreds of millions of dollars over four years.

At the same time, Meta plans to invest as much as US$600 billion in new data centre infrastructure by 2028 to support its AI ambitions.

The company has also been expanding through acquisitions, including the purchase of AI-focused social platform Moltbook and a reported US$2 billion deal to acquire Chinese startup Manus.

Meta recently cut more than 1,000 jobs in its Reality Labs metaverse division earlier this year while ramping up production of its Ray-Ban AI smart glasses.

Zuckerberg has suggested AI-driven productivity gains could allow the company to operate with smaller teams.

In January he said projects that once required large teams were increasingly being completed by “a single very talented person.”

Meta is not alone in its restructuring. Other global tech giants including Amazon, Microsoft and eBay have cut back on staff to focus on AI.

Fintech firm Block recently halved its workforce, with CEO Jack Dorsey citing AI-driven productivity improvements as a key factor.