The most dramatic personnel restructuring in Meta's history, involving nearly 8000 positions, is not simply a cost reduction, but a comprehensive organizational restructuring with AI as the core logic and covering the world. As the layoff notice progresses by the hour, over 7000 employees will be deployed to new AI related departments, resulting in a significant reduction in management levels. Meanwhile, the labor capital friction under the shadow of layoffs is also heating up, outlining Meta's aggressive strategic vision of fully investing in AI.

According to an internal memo obtained by Business Insider and The Information, Janelle Gale, the HR manager of Meta, issued a statement to all employees on Monday, stating that a layoff action will be launched this Wednesday (May 20th): approximately 8000 positions will be affected, accounting for 10% of Meta's nearly 78000 employees. It is worth noting that Meta has clearly informed its employees that the 10% layoff is not the end point, and further job cuts are not ruled out in the future. In sharp contrast, the company's investment in the AI field is unreserved, with an estimated capital expenditure of $125 billion to $145 billion in 2026 as of April this year.

Global notification at 4am: Three waves of push notifications causing employees to experience 'hover anxiety'

In the memo, Gale refined the execution pace of this layoff to the hourly level, highlighting the urgency and global nature of this restructuring. The layoff notice will be pushed in three waves starting at 4am local time in each region, covering Meta's global business segments in Asia Pacific, Europe, and the Americas in sequence.

This means that Meta employees around the world will receive notifications that determine their job fate late at night or before dawn. A Meta employee revealed to the media that the entire company is currently in a state of "hovering in the air", and all employees are anxiously waiting, unsure whether they will appear on the layoff list. This sense of uncertainty makes the workplace atmosphere particularly tense.

More than just layoffs: 7000 people transferred to AI, strategic personnel deployment is synchronized and implemented

The core of this personnel change is "restructuring" rather than "downsizing", with large-scale layoffs and strategic personnel redeployment advancing simultaneously, demonstrating Meta's determination to transform with AI at its core. According to The Information, Gale explicitly stated in a memo that due to the productivity improvement brought by AI empowerment, the company will deploy over 7000 employees across departments to enrich multiple new AI related departments.

These new departments include Applied AI Engineering (AAI), Agent Transformation Accelerator, Central Analytics, and a newly established Enterprise Solutions team. Previous reports have shown that Meta has already started to recruit top engineers from across the company, focusing on strengthening its AAI department to enhance its core strength in AI model competition. Gale further pointed out that the leadership of Meta's various departments has integrated the "AI native design principles" into the new organizational structure, and the relevant adjustment plans will be announced simultaneously with the layoffs to achieve collaborative transformation between the organization and business.

Flattening reform: significantly reducing management levels and improving efficiency with small teams

Alongside personnel deployment and layoffs, there is also Meta's organizational structure optimization - management levels will be significantly reduced across the entire company, with the core goal of creating a flatter and more efficient organizational form. Gale wrote in the memo: 'We have now reached a stage where many teams can operate in flatter structures, acting faster and taking on more ownership in smaller pods/cohorts.'. ”

In fact, some teams of Reality Labs under Meta have already taken the lead in testing this small-scale pod architecture, which will be promoted throughout the company to reduce hierarchical redundancy, improve decision-making efficiency, better adapt to the rapidly iterating business needs of the AI era, and enable the team to respond more flexibly to technological and market changes.

Internal friction heating up: thousands of people sign protest monitoring, morale under pressure

The promotion of large-scale restructuring and layoffs has also gradually brought to the surface the labor management conflicts within Meta. Recently, employees have initiated a joint petition to protest against the company's installation of mouse tracking software. The number of signatories has exceeded a thousand, highlighting the strong resistance of employees to the management's strengthened monitoring measures.

Several current employees have revealed to the media that the overall morale of the company is clearly under pressure. The uncertainty of layoffs, frequent adjustments to organizational structure, and management's monitoring measures have significantly reduced employees' sense of security, and internal resistance is continuing to ferment, adding additional resistance to this AI driven organizational restructuring.

AI betting without limits: dual logic of layoffs and massive investments

The large-scale restructuring of Meta this time is essentially a two-way effort of "slimming down" and "strengthening": on the one hand, it involves reducing non core positions, compressing management levels, and lowering organizational operating costs; On one hand, we are tilting high-quality manpower and huge capital towards the AI field, striving to seize the core competitiveness of the AI track.

Meta's 2026 capital expenditure forecast ($125 billion to $145 billion) released in April this year clearly demonstrates its huge bet on AI infrastructure - which is also the most direct footnote to the organizational restructuring with AI as the logical mainline. In the current era where AI technology has become a core competitive barrier in the technology industry, Meta is concentrating its resources on AI research and application by "eliminating redundancy and focusing on the core", attempting to achieve AI transformation of its business through organizational restructuring, and consolidating its position in the global technology field.

This largest restructuring in history not only concerns the fate of nearly 10000 Meta employees, but also reflects the strategic choice of technology giants in the AI era: in the wave of technological change, only by actively breaking the inherent organizational structure and focusing on the core track can we stand firm in fierce competition. For Meta, this AI centric organizational revolution has just begun.