Meta Prepares to Axe 16,000 Humans to Fund Infinite Robot Overlords
KEY POINTS
- •Meta is reportedly considering layoffs of up to 20% of its approximately 79,000 employees as it ramps up AI investments.
- •The company plans to spend around $600 billion on AI data centers by 2028 and has recruited top AI talent by offering large multi-year pay packages.
- •Previous Meta cuts include 11,000 jobs in 2022, 10,000 in 2023, and another 1,500 in its Reality Labs division as recent as January.
Meta, under the eagle-eye of CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is reportedly prepping for layoffs up to 20% of its 79,000-strong workforce — that’s about 16,000 jobs, roughly the population of a small tech town. This could hit as soon as next month, just as Meta pours a casual $600 billion into AI data centers through 2028 and dangles multi-million-dollar paychecks for top AI scientists on their 'superintelligence' squad led by ex-Scale AI CEO Alexander Wang. Meanwhile, their darlings Llama 4's 'Behemoth' was shelved for underperforming and internal flame-failured AI projects ‘Avocado’ and ‘Mango’ got delayed to May — apparently no fruit is safe. CEO Zuck brags about flattening teams so one genius can do what dozens did, while cutting Reality Labs' 1,500 loose earlier this year. Big Tech’s message: AI's the future, but we really just want fewer humans on the payroll, starting with Meta’s restroom queues.
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(1 of 3)Meta’s plan: fire 16,000 to buy robot overlords $600 billion playgrounds. They’re turning tech layoffs into an AI bake sale and everyone else is invited to bring a box of tissues.
Meta’s version of ‘efficiency’ means compressing 79,000 employees into a team so small it fits into one Zoom grid spot.
When your AI costs more than your staff, it’s time to start firing people and name your new models after obscure fruit.
Source: Businessinsider | Published: 3/14/2026 | Author: Pranav Dixit
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