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  "path": "/news/1982013/meta-planning-sweeping-layoffs-as-ai-costs-mount-report",
  "publishedAt": "2026-03-14T09:51:37.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.dawn.com",
  "tags": [
    "World",
    "11,000 staffers",
    "another 10,000 jobs",
    "Moltbook",
    "to buy",
    "reported",
    "confirmed"
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  "textContent": "Meta is planning sweeping layoffs that could affect 20 per cent or more of the company, three sources familiar with the matter told _Reuters_ , as Meta seeks to offset costly artificial intelligence infrastructure bets and prepare for greater efficiency brought about by AI-assisted workers.\n\nNo date has been set for the cuts and the magnitude has not been finalised, the people said.\n\nTop executives have recently signalled the plans to other senior leaders at Meta and told them to begin planning how to pare back, two of the people said.\n\nThe sources spoke anonymously because they were not authorised to disclose the cuts.\n\n“This is speculative reporting about theoretical approaches,” Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said in response to questions about the plan.\n\nIf Meta settles on the 20pc figure, the layoffs will be the company’s most significant since a restructuring in late 2022 and early 2023 that it dubbed the “year of efficiency”.\n\nIt employed nearly 79,000 people as of December 31, according to its latest filing.\n\nThe company laid off 11,000 staffers in November 2022, or around 13pc of its workforce at the time. Around four months later, it announced it was cutting another 10,000 jobs.\n\n## Zuckerberg focusing on generative AI\n\nOver the last year, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been pushing Meta to compete more forcefully in generative AI.\n\nThe company has offered huge pay packages, some worth hundreds of millions of dollars over four years, to court top AI researchers to a new superintelligence team.\n\nThe company has said it plans to invest $600 billion to build data centres by 2028.\n\nEarlier this week, it acquired Moltbook, a social networking platform built for AI agents. Meta is also spending at least $2 billion to buy Chinese AI startup Manus, _Reuters_ previously reported.\n\nZuckerberg has alluded to efficiency gains from the investments, saying in January he was starting to see “projects that used to require big teams now be accomplished by a single very talented person”.\n\nMeta’s plans reflect a broader pattern among major US companies, particularly in tech, this year. Executives have pointed to recent improvements in AI systems as one reason for the changes.\n\nIn January, Amazon confirmed it would cut some 16,000 jobs, amounting to nearly 10pc of its workforce.\n\nLast month, the fintech company Block chopped nearly half of its staff, with CEO Jack Dorsey explicitly pointing to AI tools and their growing capability to help companies do more with smaller teams.\n\nMeta’s planned AI investments follow a series of setbacks with its Llama 4 models last year, including criticism that it provided misleading results on the benchmarks it used for early versions.\n\nIt abandoned the release of the largest version of that model, called Behemoth, which had been due out in the summer.\n\nThe superintelligence team has been working to reassert the company’s standing this year by building a new model called Avocado, but the performance of that model has also lagged expectations.",
  "title": "Meta planning sweeping layoffs as AI costs mount: report"
}