Meta has announced a reduction of approximately 10% of its staff - about 8,000 jobs - and at the same time will close 6,000 open positions. The layoffs will begin on 20 May. The corporation plans to redirect the freed-up funds towards AI technology development, including teaching large language models and building related infrastructure. 

Personnel director Janelle Gale explained the measures as a need to manage the company more efficiently and offset other major investments. Employees in the US will be offered 16 weeks of basic pay, additional benefits for seniority, extended health insurance, and job placement assistance.

The internal service note had to be released ahead of schedule after information leaked to the press. At the beginning of the year, almost 79,000 people were working in Meta, and this is not the first wave of reductions: previously under optimization the division Reality Labs.