Meta Lays Off 8,000 Employees Amid Sharp Rise in AI Spending
Layoffs or terminations of employment relations (PHK) have once again occurred in technology companies. Social media giant Meta will cut 10% of its employees, equivalent to around 8,000 workers.
This decision was announced by the parent of Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram through a memo to employees. The memo was distributed on Thursday (23/4/2026) US time.
The employee layoffs will begin on 20 May 2026. In addition to the layoffs, Meta is also cancelling plans to recruit 6,000 people.
News of Meta’s layoffs was first reported by Bloomberg. This policy is said to be the impact of Meta’s increasing investment in artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
According to internal sources cited by the BBC, Meta’s expenditure, including for AI, in 2026 is estimated at $135 billion (approximately Rp 2,334 trillion). That amount is equivalent to the accumulated AI spending by Meta over the last three years.
In January 2026, Zuckerberg said he had seen how productive employees assisted by AI can be. Even, one employee can now complete projects that previously required a large team.
“I think 2026 will be the year when AI dramatically changes the way we work,” Zuckerberg said at the time.
If traced from the beginning of this year, the layoffs in May will be the third workforce reduction for Meta.
In January 2026, the company formerly known as Facebook cut around 10% of employees working on Metaverse projects. Around 1,000 people were affected by the layoffs at that time.
Then in March 2026, Meta also terminated hundreds of workers in the Facebook division, Reality Labs, global operations, and sales.
At the same time, this social media giant stated it would replace third-party vendors or contractors handling content moderation tasks with AI, as compiled by KompasTekno from CNBC.
In addition to Meta, waves of layoffs are still being experienced by other technology companies in recent times.
In January, Amazon announced plans to lay off around 16,000 workers. Microsoft recently also offered a voluntary resignation programme for its employees in the US.
Atlassian, an Australian company known for products like Jira, Confluence, and Trello, also cut around 10% of its total workforce, or about 1,600 employees.
In addition, this step is also said to be necessary to improve the company’s financial condition and adjust work strategies to be faster and more efficient in the AI era.
Nevertheless, Atlassian emphasised that these layoffs do not mean AI is fully replacing the roles of the affected employees.
According to Mike, AI is more about changing workflows, skill requirements, and the number of positions needed in some fields, so the company feels the need to adapt.