Under the surge in AI investment, Meta is busy "changing blood": 7,000 people are being reassigned to AI, while simultaneously laying off 8,000 people

According to the Zhitong Finance APP, under the dual pressure of the AI arms race and Wall Street efficiency demands, Meta Platforms Inc. (META.US) is undergoing a large-scale human resource "reshuffle." An internal memorandum recently disclosed shows that Meta is reallocating 7,000 employees to AI-related positions, covering newly formed teams such as Application AI Engineering and Intelligent Agent Transformation Accelerators, to promote the company's transition to an AI-first organizational structure. Meanwhile, the company is expected to lay off about 8,000 employees globally starting this Wednesday (May 20), accounting for approximately 10% of its total workforce.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has established AI as the company's top strategic priority, driving the comprehensive adoption of AI intelligent agents to assist in coding and other tasks. Earlier this year, Zuckerberg stated that one person can now accomplish projects that previously required large teams.

The 7,000 employees being reassigned will join teams including Application AI Engineering (AAI) and Intelligent Agent Transformation Accelerators. These projects are led by Meta's Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth, aiming to develop AI intelligent agents capable of autonomously completing tasks currently performed by humans. The Central Analytics team will provide productivity and data analysis support for the development of these intelligent agents.

However, internal resistance is brewing during the transformation process. Reports indicate that employees are expressing protests by posting flyers in company offices and making posts on internal communication platforms, with over 1,000 employees signing a petition against the installation of mouse tracking software on employee computers for training AI models. In the UK, some employees have begun organizing a unionization movement, accusing executives of "pursuing speculative AI strategies" that impose devastating consequences on employees.

Surge in AI Capital Expenditures, Human Costs "Yielding"

Before this restructuring, Meta had already clarified in its Q4 2025 financial report that AI-related investments would increase from $115 billion to $135 billion by 2026. The company's first-quarter revenue reached a record $56.31 billion, yet it still chose to continue streamlining its workforce to "offset other investments." Chief People Officer Janelle Gale characterized the layoffs in the memorandum as an action to "enhance company efficiency," explicitly stating that it is to "offset the other investments we are making."

This is not the first time Meta has conducted large-scale workforce reductions. Since laying off about 11,000 employees in November 2022, Meta has undergone multiple rounds of layoffs, with this latest action involving approximately 8,000 people being the largest adjustment since 2023's "Year of Efficiency."

Meta is not alone in this trend. Microsoft launched its first voluntary retirement program in 51 years during the same period, targeting U.S. employees whose age and tenure total 70 years or more, with about 7% of U.S. employees qualifying, potentially affecting around 9,000 people. Previously, Microsoft had laid off over 15,000 employees by 2025. Meanwhile, its subsidiary LinkedIn announced another round of layoffs of about 5%, nearly 900 people, affecting engineering, product, and marketing teams, even though the company recorded a 12% year-on-year revenue increase in its latest quarter Amazon's AI transformation is more aggressive. Since the beginning of 2025, Amazon has laid off over 30,000 corporate employees, primarily in non-core business departments, while frontline positions in e-commerce delivery and AWS cloud services have not been affected. Alongside the layoffs, Amazon has required employees to adhere to an "AI-first" principle in almost all workflows, including coding, product design, and supply chain analysis, and plans to invest approximately $200 billion in AI infrastructure by 2026. However, this push has sparked internal reactions—according to internal employees, immature AI tools have instead increased the workload for manually fixing errors.

Over 100,000 Laid Off Since 2026

According to Layoffs.fyi, the number of layoffs in the global tech industry has exceeded 103,000 since 2026, nearing the approximately 124,000 layoffs for the entire year of 2025. In the tech industry layoff wave of the first quarter of 2026, companies have accelerated the shift from human labor to AI automation due to the impact of productivity tools and pressure from Wall Street, marking an irreversible structural trend.

It is noteworthy that this layoff wave is different from previous ones. Foreign media cited executive coach Anthony Tuggle's view that "this represents a fundamental structural shift, rather than a temporary market adjustment. We are witnessing a permanent transformation in the way work is organized across various industries." Tech companies are reallocating budgets from human labor to GPU chips and data centers—this year, the four major tech giants (Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet) are expected to spend nearly $700 billion on AI infrastructure, while salaries for traditional tech positions remain flat, and specialized roles such as AI engineers enjoy a salary premium of over 50%.

Meanwhile, the hiring landscape is being reshaped. Demand for entry-level and general IT positions is slowing, while there is strong demand for senior engineers with AI system integration capabilities. As economist Daniel Zhao pointed out, many employees feel "stuck," as stability is no longer determined by years of service but increasingly by the ability to keep pace with the skill demands of the AI era