Meta is preparing for a massive restructuring phase, as recent reports indicate Meta to sack 8,000 employees and close roughly 6,000 open job listings. According to a company memo obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, these upcoming job cuts will affect approximately 10% of the company's total workforce and are expected to be finalized next month.
Why Meta is Moving to Sack 8,000 Employees and Closing Listings
The decision to reduce headcount is reportedly driven by Meta’s ongoing strategic pivot to redirect resources into AI-related investments. As the tech giant continues to manage core services like Facebook and Instagram, the company is prioritizing the future of artificial intelligence.
Meta Chief People Officer Janelle Gale addressed the staff directly following an initial leak of the news. "Normally, we would want to nail down more details before communicating about this broadly, but since this has leaked, I want to share what I can right now," Gale wrote.
She continued, "I know this is unwelcome news and confirming this puts everyone in an uneasy state, but we feel this is the best path forward, given the circumstances." This restructuring follows a period of instability for Reality Labs (formerly Oculus VR), which has already seen significant changes.
A Pattern of Downsizing in Reality Labs
This latest wave of layoffs follows closely on the heels of a 10% staff reduction within the Reality Labs division earlier this year. The company, which develops the hardware behind the Meta Quest 3, has been aggressively scaling back certain experimental projects.
These previous cuts resulted in more than 1,000 employees losing their positions and led to the closure of several prominent VR-focused development studios:
- Twisted Pixel (the developers of Deadpool VR)
- Armature Studio (the team behind Resident Evil 4 VR)
- Sanzaru Games (creators of Asgard's Wrath 2)
As the company manages the fallout from the decision to sack 8,000 employees, the industry remains focused on how these shifts will impact the future of Meta's metaverse and AI ambitions.
