Meta Massively Lays Off Employees While Investing in AI

Meta recently announced massive layoffs affecting several hundred employees across various divisions of the company. According to reports from the New York Times, NBC News, and The Information, these job cuts particularly impact recruitment, social media, sales teams, as well as Reality Labs, the branch responsible for developing smart glasses and virtual reality headsets.

Tracy Clayton, a spokesperson for Meta, explained in a statement sent to The Verge that these restructurings aim to optimally position teams to achieve their goals. She also mentioned that the company is looking to provide other opportunities for employees whose positions are at risk, although she did not specify the exact number of affected roles. As of December 2025, Meta had nearly 79,000 employees.

Alongside these workforce reductions, Meta continues to distance itself from its image as a pioneer of the "metaverse." The company plans to invest up to $135 billion in developing its data centers for artificial intelligence, while also finalizing an agreement to integrate Arm's first CPU into these infrastructures.

In January, Meta had already laid off at least 1,000 employees from Reality Labs, closed three virtual reality studios, and abandoned its work-focused metaverse platform. Additionally, the company has stopped producing new content for its virtual reality fitness app, Supernatural. In February, Meta announced the closure of the VR version of its 3D social platform, Horizon Worlds, before reversing that decision, stating that the platform would remain available for download "for the foreseeable future."