In January, Mark Zuckerberg stood before investors and described a future where "projects that used to require big teams now be accomplished by a single very talented person." He sounded certain. Almost relaxed. His company just rolled out a new AI engineering organization. Managers oversee up to 50 direct reports. That ratio would have been absurd at any point in Meta's 22-year history, but Zuckerberg wasn't blinking.
Reuters reported Thursday that Meta is weighing layoffs that could reach 20% or more of its workforce. Run the numbers on 78,865 year-end employees. Roughly 16,000. No date set, no final scope. But the company selling Wall Street on AI-powered productivity is drawing lines through its own headcount.
Not a trim around the edges. A fifth of the company.
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