Meta has been sending emails to around 10% of its 78,000 employees informing them they’ve been laid off. According to a memo sent by Meta HR chief Janelle Gale, the notifications went out in three waves at 4 a.m. local time on Wednesday.
Previous reports claimed that Meta’s workforce reductions and transfers could eventually affect nearly 20% of employees by the end of the year. Meta also plans to move around 7,000 employees to AI-related initiatives and eliminate many managerial roles.
Gale said “As org leaders worked on the changes, many of them incorporated AI native design principles to their new org structures. We’re now at a stage where many orgs can operate with a flatter structure with smaller teams of pods/cohorts that can move faster and with more ownership.”
READ: Meta plans to lay off 10% of workforce this week amid AI restructuring (May 19, 2026)
The layoffs are expected to eliminate around 8,000 roles. The company will offer U.S. employees a severance package including 16 weeks in base pay, as well as two weeks for every year of continuous employment.
They’ll also get 18 months of healthcare coverage for themselves and their families — triple the previous amount, according to Business Insider. Employees from other countries will receive similar packages that vary by country.
A number of other tech companies have recently conducted layoffs, with AI often being mentioned as playing a role in them.
Fintech company Block recently gave recently laid-off employees 20 weeks of salary plus one additional week per year of tenure and six months of healthcare. Amazon gave staff three months of full pay and healthcare benefits, plus an additional severance package.
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At an internal meeting last month, Gale said morale had taken a hit due to the looming layoffs, and that the tech giant was doing its best to make a “shitty” situation “the best version possible,” adding that COBRA coverage had been tripled.
Meta employees have been in a state of uncertainty ever since the layoffs were first announced on April 23. Meta said at the time in an internal memo that the job cuts would help the company run “more efficiently” and offset investments.
The company is spending billions in the AI race and in April forecast its 2026 capital expenditures to range from $125 billion to $145 billion. Meta leaders have also not ruled out the possibility of further layoffs beyond these 10% cuts.