Snapchat Lays Off 1,000 Employees, Shifts to AI to Save Rp 8.5 Trillion
Snap, the parent company of the Snapchat app, is cutting around 1,000 of its employees. This decision was announced by Snap on Wednesday (15 April 2026) US time.
The redundancies equate to about 16 per cent of full-time staff. In addition to the layoffs, Snap is also eliminating more than 300 positions that have not yet been filled by new employees.
According to Snap CEO Evan Spiegel, the cuts are being made to prioritise investments believed to be valuable to the company in the long term, as well as to save on company expenditure.
“Over the past few months, we have carefully reviewed the work needed to best serve our community and partners,” Spiegel said in a memo sent to employees.
The Snap boss also explained that the redundancies and organisational adjustments will save the company’s budget by up to $500 million (around Rp 8.5 trillion) in the second half of 2026.
As a replacement for the roles being cut, Snap will utilise AI to help lighten the load on employees whose team sizes have been reduced.
Spiegel also believes that AI can assist Snap employees, especially since some of his teams have already proven that the technology can make significant progress.
“We believe that rapid AI advancements will enable our teams to reduce repetitive work, increase speed, and better support our community, partners, and advertisers,” said the Snapchat founder, quoted by KompasTekno from SFGate.
Snap did not detail which divisions are affected by the redundancies or how many workers at its California headquarters are impacted.
It is clear, however, that those affected by the redundancies will receive severance pay. According to Snap’s document to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the company, known for its yellow colour, will spend around $95 million to $130 million (around Rp 1.6 trillion to Rp 2.22 trillion) on severance.
This redundancy comes two years after Snap cut 500 of its employees in February 2024. At that time, Snap also claimed that the redundancies would allow the company to focus on its priorities.
Thus, the total number of employees affected by this round of redundancies is roughly 540 people.
The 2026 redundancies at Snap are not the first. Several waves of redundancies at Snapchat’s parent company have occurred since 2022, with a total of more than 1,300 employees affected.
Then in November 2023, Snap cut around 20 of its product managers.
In early 2024, Snap also carried out redundancies affecting 10 per cent of its global workforce, involving roughly 540 people.