Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wears Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses, as he delivers a speech introducing the new line of smart glasses, during the Meta Connect event at the company’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California, United States, September 17, 2025.
Carlos Barría | Reuters
Meta East dismissal several hundred employees on Wednesday, CNBC confirmed.
The job cuts affect several different organizations within the company, including Facebookglobal operations, recruiting, sales and its virtual reality division Reality Labsaccording to a source close to the company’s plans who asked to remain anonymous because they are confidential.
Some affected employees are being offered new roles within the company, the person said. In some cases, these new positions will require relocation.
“Meta teams regularly restructure or implement changes to ensure they are in the best position to achieve their goals. Where possible, we find other opportunities for employees whose positions may be affected,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement.
The layoffs come as Meta has refocused its efforts and invested billions of dollars in artificial intelligencewhere the social media giant has been scrambling to catch up with rivals like OpenAI, Anthropic And Google.
Read more CNBC tech newsThe information was the first to report the cuts.
In January, Meta cut staff at its Reality Labs division and closed a number of studios that worked on VR titles, CNBC previously reported. These layoffs affected more than 1,000 jobs and would impact around 10% of this unit, which manufactures Quest VR headsets and the virtual social network Horizon Worlds.
Meta actions rose nearly 3% earlier in March after Reuters reported the company could cut more than 20% of its workforce. A Meta spokesperson said at the time: “This is a speculative report on theoretical approaches.”
At the same time, Meta also continued to recruit talents specializing in generative AI and related AI agents, which became the company’s new focus area.
The company’s latest effort included licensing arrangement with the startup Dreamer, whose collaborators will join the AI technology of the company Meta Superintelligence Labs. As a result, Dreamer co-founder Hugo Barra will return to Meta, having previously helped lead the company’s development. virtual reality efforts from 2017 to 2021.
Meta declined to comment on the terms of the deal.
The company revealed in company filings late Tuesday that its top executives, such as Chief Financial Officer Susan Li, Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth, Chief Product Officer Christopher Cox and Chief Operating Officer Javier Olivan would benefit from a new stock option incentive program. The program is designed as a tool to retain key Meta executives while continuing to invest heavily in artificial intelligence.
“It’s a big gamble,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement. “These pay packages will not be realized unless Meta achieves massive future success, benefiting all of our shareholders. As with all stock options, there is only value if the stock price significantly exceeds the strike price, and in this case it must be on an extremely aggressive 5-year timetable.”
Stock chart iconStock chart icon
Year-to-date stock meta-chart.