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According to a report, Meta is preparing to lay off about 10% of its employees next month. The company has also not ruled out that if need arises, more people may be laid off in the future. This information came to light in an internal meeting of the company, where Chief People Officer Janelle Gale informed the employees about this.

At the meeting, she said, "It is natural to raise the question whether there will be more layoffs. I would like to say that there will be no more layoffs, but I cannot promise it. Our business is strong, but our priorities are changing, competition is increasing and it is also necessary to control expenses." He also said that the company will realign its teams as per the need and will try to send talented people to new divisions.

What did Mark Zuckerberg say?

Mark Zuckerberg also spoke on this occasion. He said "compute and infrastructure" and "human resources" make up the bulk of the company's expenses. Referring to the increasing investment in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI), he said that to balance this investment, the size of the company will have to be reduced slightly. Janelle Gale indicated that some departments may be impacted more by layoffs than others, but she did not specify which departments those would be. The company management also clarified that no one is being fired from the job directly due to the use of AI token or automation.

Around 8,000 employees will be employed

According to media reports, the company may fire around 8,000 employees to handle the increasing expenditure on AI. Zuckerberg said Meta Platforms is reviewing the size of its teams. He told that AI technology has advanced so much that the work which was earlier done by 50-100 people, can now be done even by a team of 10 people. In such a situation, working with the old team size is not beneficial.

However, he also clarified that the smaller size of the team does not mean that everyone will lose their job. He said AI will also help employees create new projects. On the other hand, the economic situation around the world has also affected the company. Zuckerberg said that after the US attack against Iran, oil prices have increased, due to which common people are spending more on essential things. The effect of this has been that the expenditure on advertisements has reduced, due to which the company's advertising business has suffered a setback.

From an investment perspective, the company has increased its capital expenditure (CapEx) estimate to $125-$145 billion from $115-$135 billion. Big tech companies like Amazon and Google are expected to invest a combined total of around $750 billion in AI this year. This increasing expenditure has worried investors, due to which Meta shares saw a decline of about 9%.

During the meeting, Zuckerberg also mentioned plans to analyze employees' keystrokes and mouse movements to improve AI models. He made it clear that no one will see this data personally, rather it will be used for training AI. Alexander Wang, head of the AI ​​department, also praised the company's new AI models at the meeting, especially the "Spark" model.

Meta will not fill 6,000 vacant posts

Meanwhile, according to reports in March, the company may cut about 20% of its total workforce this year. The layoff process may begin from May 20 and the company will also abandon plans to fill 6,000 vacant positions.

The company's Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Susan Lee said that it is not yet clear what should be the ideal number of employees for the company. Meta currently has more than 77,000 employees. Most of the company's infrastructure spending is going on AI development, which is expected to double this year from $72.2 billion by 2025.

Overall, Meta is betting big on AI and trying to further improve its functioning. Due to these changes, employees are also being laid off and more changes may be seen in the company's structure in the coming days.