Meta is laying off hundreds of employees across various divisions, according to reports from the likes of The New York Times and NBC News.
Per NYT, as many as 700 people are being cut in Meta’s Reality Labs VR branch, as well as those in departments like social media, recruiting, sales, and global operations. It’s unclear exactly how the layoffs are being divided between the various divisions.
This comes after Meta wasted tens of billions on its grand vision to create a metaverse, which never panned out and resulted in the company scaling back its plans. In response, the company has cut some 25,000 jobs since 2022.
Going forward, Meta has confirmed that it will focus on AI and wearables alongside its ever-popular social media business. In particular, Meta CEO Mark Zuckberg has talked about plans to create a “superintelligence” that can serve as a powerful AI companion to allow people to “have greater agency to improve the world in the directions they choose.” He’s even shown off how his home is controlled by an AI inspired by Tony Stark’s J.A.R.V.I.S. in the Marvel universe.
If Meta’s bungled metaverse scheme wasn’t already a particularly egregious example of being fiscally irresponsible, especially as Zuckberg remains one of the world’s richest men, NYT reports that Meta actually unveiled a new stock program right before the layoffs to give overpaid executives even more money. Specifically, the publication notes that six top executives could have their compensation increased by up to US$921 million each over the next five years in an effort to retain them from other AI-obsessed tech companies.
Despite all of its layoffs, Meta still has around 78,000 employees worldwide. It remains to be seen how many more of those will be gutted as the company continues to chase tech trends.
Source: The New York Times, NBC News
