Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, announced Thursday the layoff of around 10% of its workforce, or 8,000 employees, in order to compensate for its massive investments in artificial intelligence (AI). For its part, Microsoft has announced a voluntary departure plan which could concern up to 7% of teams, or around 8,750 people.

Published on: 04/23/2026 - 9:19 p.m. Modified on: 04/24/2026 - 07:18

Meta announced internally, Thursday April 23, the dismissal of 8,000 people, or around 10% of its workforce, indicated a source close to the matter at Agence France-Presse (AFP), while several people reported a vast voluntary departure plan at Microsoft.

In a memo, Meta's human resources manager, Janelle Gale, justified this decision by the desire to "manage the company more efficiently and offset the investments" of the group, engaged in a frantic race for artificial intelligence (AI).

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The parent company of the social networks Facebook and Instagram had 78,865 employees at the end of December, according to documents sent to the American markets regulator, the SEC. In addition to the layoffs, the company will eliminate 6,000 currently unfilled positions, AFP learned from the same source, confirming information from the Bloomberg agency.

For its part, Microsoft announced internally on Thursday a voluntary departure plan which could concern up to 7% of teams, or around 8,750 people, several American media reported. Contacted by AFP, the Redmond (Washington State) firm did not immediately respond. This is the first voluntary departure plan in the group's history.

Huge sums spent on AI

On the Meta side, even if AI was not highlighted to contextualize the contraction announced Thursday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg had already, at the end of January, made the link between this technology and cost savings. “Projects that previously would have required large teams are now carried out by a single very talented person,” he said. As a result, "we are betting on individual contributions and reducing the size of teams."

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At the same time, Meta is spending huge amounts of money on the development and use of AI. The Menlo Park (California) company plans to invest between $115 and $135 billion in 2026, largely to ensure sufficient capacity for AI, from chips to data centers. At the end of February, Meta reported an agreement with the American AMD to purchase millions of chips, for at least $60 billion.

For Wedbush Securities analysts, despite the amounts invested, Meta's strategy in AI "is more disciplined" than during the previous cycle, focused on the "metaverse" (virtual universe), which ended in a financial fiasco. “We are confident in management’s ability to negotiate this transition period,” they added.

With AFP

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