Meta Lays Off Staff Again, AI Focus Shift Draws Spotlight

Meta has once again undertaken redundancies in the United States. This time, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram is cutting around 200 employees in the Silicon Valley area, California. According to documents submitted to California’s labour authorities, 124 positions in Burlingame and 74 positions in Sunnyvale will be eliminated. These workforce reductions are scheduled to take effect from the end of May 2026. This step adds to the list of efficiency measures Meta has implemented in recent years. Previously, at the end of March 2026, Meta also carried out redundancies affecting several teams, from recruitment, sales, operations, to the Reality Labs division. Even earlier, in January 2026, Meta first cut more than 1,000 employees, or about 10 percent of the total workforce in Reality Labs. Reuters had previously reported that Meta could conduct larger redundancies, even up to 20 percent of its total workforce. If it happens, that figure would be one of the largest cuts since the 2022–2023 layoff wave, when Meta reduced around 11,000 employees or 13 percent of its total staff. Amid this wave of efficiencies, Meta is still opening vacancies for several strategic positions. As of the end of 2025, the company’s employee count stood at around 79,000 people, up about 6 percent from the previous year. This situation indicates that Meta is not merely cutting its workforce but is also changing its business priorities and talent needs within the company. That shift in direction is clearly evident from Meta’s major focus on artificial intelligence (AI). Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg previously stated that 2026 would be the year when AI begins to drastically change the way work is done. According to him, jobs that previously required large teams can now be carried out by fewer people with AI support. That statement reinforces the suspicion that the restructuring at Meta is inseparable from the company’s efforts to increase efficiency through automation and AI technology. While the number of staff in some divisions is being reduced, Meta is actually increasing investments to build AI infrastructure, such as servers and data centres. The company’s capital expenditure in 2026 is projected to reach $115 billion to $135 billion, or approximately Rp1,958 trillion to Rp2,298 trillion.