Meta Announces 10,000 Layoffs in ‘Year of Efficiency’ Move; Singles Out AI Over Metaverse as ‘Largest Investment’

Meta, the social media company, will continue to shed part of its workforce, recently announcing 10,000 new layoffs to be executed during 2023 as part of its new efficiency policy. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of the company, stated that artificial intelligence (AI) was currently the company’s most prominent investment, even over the metaverse.

Meta Announces 10,000 Layoffs, Striving to Achieve Sustainability

Meta, the parent company of platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp, has announced a new set of moves as part of its “year of efficiency” policy. In a Facebook post, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a new round of 10,000 layoffs, which will be executed during the remainder of 2023. Furthermore, he stated that 5,000 open hiring spots will be closed.

Zuckerberg explained that these layoffs were the consequence of the new economic configuration that the U.S. and the world are currently facing. In this sense, Zuckerberg declared:

Higher interest rates lead to the economy running leaner, more geopolitical instability leads to more volatility, and increased regulation leads to slower growth and increased costs of innovation. Given this outlook, we’ll need to operate more efficiently than our previous headcount reduction to ensure success.

However, Zuckerberg remarks that the company is working on a plan to keep investing in future developments while maintaining sustainability for the company in the short term.

This movement was anticipated in February, with reports hinting at the execution of a new round of layoffs due to the delay in the finalization of internal budgets. Meta laid off 13% of its staff in November last year, announcing a cultural shift in the company and citing macroeconomic conditions as the cause of the measure.

Closer to AI Than to the Metaverse

While Zuckerberg mentions the metaverse as part of the key tech to the company in his blog post, stating that it serves “to deliver a realistic sense of presence” and that it “remains central to defining the future of social connection,” he disclosed Meta is currently also putting funds behind other emergent fields.

As part of an explanation of how the company is conducting business internally, Zuckerberg commented:

Our single largest investment is in advancing AI and building it into every one of our products. We have the infrastructure to do this at unprecedented scale and I think the experiences it enables will be amazing.

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