Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Thursday that the company’s latest round of layoffs was linked to increased spending on artificial intelligence, while leaving the door open for further job cuts.
Zuckerberg made the remarks during a company town hall, his first time addressing employees since Meta confirmed plans to cut around 8,000 jobs — approximately 10% of its workforce.
The layoffs, expected to begin May 20, come as the company accelerates its investments in AI and infrastructureFOX Business previously reported.
“We basically have two major cost centers in the company: IT infrastructure and people-oriented things,” Zuckerberg said, according to Reuters.
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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company’s latest layoffs were linked to increased spending on artificial intelligence. (Alex Wong/Getty Images/Getty Images)
“If we invest more in one area to serve our community, that means we have less capital to allocate to the other,” he added. “So that means we have to reduce the size of the company somewhat.”
Zuckerberg said the cuts are not related to Meta’s move to an “AI-native” structure or efforts to create autonomous AI agents.
“Getting everyone internally to use AI tools and do the job more efficiently is not what leads to layoffs,” he said.
Teleprinter Security Last Change Change % META META PLATFORMS INC. 611.91 -57.21 -8.55% Yet Zuckerberg refused to exclude others job cuts.
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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company was cutting jobs as it increased its investments in artificial intelligence. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
“We’ll see how this all evolves,” he said, adding that the company “may share more soon.”
“I wish I could tell you I have a crystal ball plan for the next three years of how this is all going to play out,” he said. “I don’t. I don’t think anyone knows.”
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has also started tracking employee activity – including clicks, shortcuts and how employees navigate apps – as part of efforts to train its AI systems.
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Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta Platforms Inc., appears at the Meta Connect event in Menlo Park, California, September 17, 2025. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Reuters reported that the layoffs and monitoring efforts drew internal criticism, with employees expressing concerns on company chat rooms.
Meta referred FOX Business to comments from Chief Financial Officer Susan Li, who said during an earnings conference call that the long-term size of the company remained uncertain.
“We don’t really know what the optimal company size will be in the future,” Li said, citing the rapid evolution of AI capabilities.
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Meta previously cut 11,000 jobs in November 2022 and 10,000 months later. The company employed nearly 79,000 people as of Dec. 31, according to its latest filing.
Louis Casiano of FOX Business and Reuters contributed to this report.