Meta to lay off hundreds of employees: report

Wednesday's ⁠layoffs were on a smaller scale. ​According to an earlier report in The Information, the cuts would affect Meta's Reality Labs division, social media teams and recruiting operations.

"Teams across Meta regularly restructure or implement changes to ⁠ensure they're in the ‌best ​position to achieve their goals. Where possible, we are finding ​other opportunities ‌for employees whose positions may be impacted," a Meta ​spokesperson said in a statement.

The Facebook parent is seeking to offset rising costs tied to massive investments ​in ​artificial intelligence, having forecast ​total expenses of $US162 billion to $US169 ‌billion in 2026, and rising employee compensation as the technology giant spends millions to hire top AI talent.

Meta had nearly 79,000 employees as of December 31, according to its ​annual filing.