Meta cutting several hundred jobs over Reality Labs, Facebook and more

Meta CNBC confirmed Wednesday that it will lay off several hundred employees.

The cuts are happening across many different organizations within the company, including Facebook, global operations, recruiting, sales and virtual reality division Reality Labs, according to a source familiar with the company’s plans who asked not to be named because it is confidential.

The person said that some affected employees have been offered new roles within the company. In some cases, these new positions may require relocation.

“Teams at Meta regularly restructure or implement changes to ensure they are best positioned to achieve their goals. Where possible, we find other opportunities for employees whose positions may be affected,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement.

The layoffs come as Meta is refocusing its efforts and pouring billions of dollars into artificial intelligence, where the social media giant is racing to catch up with rivals like OpenAI, Anthropic and others. Google.

Information was the first to report the outages.

In January, Meta laid off employees focused on its Reality Labs division and closed a number of studios working on VR games, CNBC previously reported. These layoffs affected more than 1,000 jobs and will impact approximately 10% of the unit that makes Quest VR headsets and the Horizon Worlds virtual social network.

Meta shares rose nearly 3% in early March after Reuters reported that the company could cut more than 20% of its workforce. “This is a speculative report on theoretical approaches,” a Meta spokesperson said at the time.

Meanwhile, Meta continues to expand capabilities specializing in generative AI and related AI agents, which has become the company’s new focus area.

The company’s latest effort included a licensing adjustment With the startup Dreamer, whose employees will participate in the artificial intelligence technology of the company Meta Superintelligence Labs. As a result, Dreamer co-founder Hugo Barra will return to Meta, having previously led the company’s virtual reality efforts from 2017 to 2021.

Meta declined to comment on the terms of the deal.

The company announced in corporate filings Tuesday evening that its top executives, including chief financial officer Susan Li, technology chief Andrew Bosworth, chief product officer Christopher Cox and chief operating officer Javier Olivan, will benefit from a new stock option incentive program. The program is designed as a retention tool for Meta’s senior leaders as it continues to invest heavily in AI.

“This is a big bet,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement. “These compensation packages will not be implemented unless Meta achieves great success in the future, benefiting all our shareholders. As with all stock options, there is value only if the share price meaningfully exceeds the strike price, in which case it should be on an extremely aggressive 5-year timeline.”