Meta Plans Largest Layoffs in History – 15,000 Jobs Cut to Fund AI

Meta Cutting 15,000 Jobs to Pay for AI Ambitions

Mark Zuckerberg is planning the largest layoffs in Meta's history – an estimated 15,000 employees, or roughly 20 percent of the workforce, according to Reuters and CNBC.

Why Now?

The forces are twofold: offsetting the enormous cost of Meta's AI infrastructure bets, and preparing for a future where AI tools enable the company to do more with fewer people.

Meta has committed $65 billion in capital expenditures for 2026 – mostly for AI data centers and GPU infrastructure. The layoffs are Zuckerberg's answer to who foots the bill.

Trouble on the AI Frontier

The downsizing comes during a challenging period for Meta's own AI models. The upcoming flagship model, codenamed "Avocado", has underperformed in internal testing and trails rivals like Google's Gemini and Anthropic's Claude. Launch has been pushed to at least May.

Earlier in 2025, the largest Llama 4 model, called "Behemoth," was scrapped after facing criticism for misleading benchmark results. TBD Lab, an elite team specifically built to create Avocado, has so far only publicly released Vibes – an AI video app.

Shareholders Cheer

Meta stock climbed nearly 3% on the news. Wall Street rewards cost efficiency, even at the cost of 15,000 jobs.

The Bigger Picture

This is another data point in an industry trend no one can ignore: even the world's most resource-rich AI companies are cutting headcount to fund model development. For CIOs and IT leaders, this should prompt serious reflection on workforce strategy in the AI era.

The logical conclusion Zuckerberg is betting on: AI will replace a significant portion of what those 15,000 people did. The question isn't whether this happens in your industry – it's when.