Meta Cuts 8,000 Jobs Globally, 180 in Ireland, Amid AI Investment Push

Meta is implementing a 10 percent global workforce reduction, cutting approximately 8,000 jobs to offset significant AI investments and enhance efficiency. Irish staff are among those affected, with an estimated 180 roles potentially axed if the global cut is mirrored locally.

Notifications began in Meta's Asian hub in Singapore at 4 AM local time, with European and US-based employees receiving word shortly after. This round of layoffs primarily impacts engineering and product teams, though further reductions may occur later in the year.

Since its post-Covid peak, Meta's Irish workforce has already decreased by 40 percent, from 3,000 to 1,800 employees across sites in Dublin, Co Meath, and Cork. This follows previous cuts in 2022 and May 2023, which resulted in nearly 350 and 500 job losses respectively.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg has prioritized AI, committing over $100 billion to AI capital expenditures this year. Ahead of these layoffs and reassignments, Meta had just under 80,000 employees at the end of March, with 7,000 workers recently reassigned to AI-focused teams. Analysts at Evercore estimate these job cuts will generate only about $3 billion in savings.