Meta lays off more than 2,000 from Menlo Park headquarters

New records show thousands of Bay Area employees are on Meta’s chopping block, all part of a 10% layoff announced last week expected to affect 8,000 worldwide.

Three WARN filings released Thursday reveal a larger swath of engineers laid off as the company pivots to artificial intelligence. Affected employees include 2,212 workers at the company’s headquarters at 1 Hacker Way in Menlo Park, 313 workers at its 1180 Discovery Way, Sunnyvale, office, and 74 at its 12105 East Waterfront Drive, Playa Vista, office in Los Angeles County.

The largest layoffs appear to be software engineers in Menlo Park across Meta’s biggest social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. These include major cuts to teams responsible for its business-facing AI products integrated in those apps, like BizAI and Core Ads. Elsewhere in the company, three chef positions were cut in the “Data Center & Pastry Culinary Team Group.”

In Burlingame, Meta continues to gut its Reality Labs staff, responsible for developing virtual reality and wearable tech. The company announced in April that it would be “right-sizing” that area due to little growth in the VR industry, though it’s also cost Meta billions in revenue in recent years.

The WARN filings, which are mandated by the state in the event of mass layoffs, say that Meta notified employees on May 20, and will separate by July 22. Severance will include 16 weeks of base pay, with an additional two weeks for every year employment, according to Meta spokesperson Tracy Clayton.

“The changes we are implementing vary by team and include layoffs, open role closures, and moving thousands of employees to business critical priorities across the company,” Clayton said in an email.

In a memo to staff last week, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg maintained that the cuts were to reposition the company in its place in the AI race and deliver “superintelligence” for the average consumer. He also admitted that Meta has made mistakes in moves like this and poorly communicated its motives –– areas he said the company needed to improve on. 

Zuckerberg wrote that he did not expect any more companywide layoffs this year, but the letter fell short of a firm commitment. Last week’s layoff announcement was the third round of cuts just this year with more than a 1,000 jobs slashed in January, and around 700 more in March. While he wrote this was the most “dynamic” he’s seen the industry, he maintained his optimism for Meta’s future — with a caveat.

“But success isn’t a given,” Zuckerberg wrote. “AI is the most consequential technology of our lifetimes. The companies that lead the way will define the next generation.”