“Meta’s layoffs this year will be the social media giant’s most significant since a restructuring in late 2022 and early 2023 that it dubbed the “year of efficiency”, when it eliminated about 21,000 jobs.”

“At that time, Meta’s stock was in freefall, and the company was struggling to correct for Covid-era growth assumptions that ultimately proved unsustainable.”

“Meta’s shares are up 3.68% since the start of the year, though they are down from a record high achieved last summer.”

“Last year, it generated more than $200bn (R3.26-trillion) of revenue and achieved a $60bn (R978.36bn) profit despite outsized spending on AI.”

“Menlo Park, California-based Meta employed nearly 79,000 people by December 31, according to its latest filing.”

“In recent weeks, Meta has reorganised teams in its Reality Labs division and transferred engineers from throughout the company into a new “applied AI” organisation tasked with accelerating the development of AI agents that can write code and carry out complex tasks autonomously.”

“One of the sources said some staffers also would be transferred into Meta Small Business, a unit set up last month, as part of the restructuring.”