Meta terminates 8,000 jobs globally, while Singapore staff receive their termination e-mails at 4 AM, as the company moves on with its new AI-focused teams - Singapore News

22 May 2026, 12:00 · The Independent

SINGAPORE: Meta’s latest round of job cuts arrived even before sunrise in Singapore. Employees at the social media giant woke up on Wednesday (May 20) to emails sent around 4 am local time informing them their roles had been cut, as the company began laying off around 8,000 workers globally while reshaping itself around artificial intelligence (AI).

According to Bloomberg, staff in other regions were scheduled to receive notifications in their own morning hours. The job cuts affect roughly 10 per cent of Meta’s workforce and mainly target engineering and product teams. Staff were also encouraged to work from home during the process. At the same time, thousands of employees are being moved into newly created AI-focused teams.

Meta reassigned about 7,000 employees to AI projects just days before the layoffs in other job roles

This is not to say that Meta is tightening its belt because its business is weak. On the contrary, the company remains highly profitable, and its chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, has made AI its top priority.

Meta has committed up to US$145 billion (S$186 billion) in capital spending this year, much of it tied to AI infrastructure and development, and just days before the layoffs began, Meta reassigned about 7,000 employees into AI projects covering products and AI agents.

In an internal memo reviewed by Bloomberg, Meta’s Chief People Officer Janelle Gale said the company wants flatter structures and smaller working groups that move faster and carry greater ownership.

For staff receiving their work termination emails before dawn, however, the experience likely felt far less efficient and polished than that shocking memo.

Employees pushed back over how AI-related projects are changing work culture

Meta’s redirection mirrors a trend spreading across the tech sector, with companies once hiring aggressively to build products now reorganising around how AI is changing workflows, team sizes and spending priorities. Meta is far from alone, but its scale makes the transition hard to ignore.

Some employees have already pushed back internally over how AI-related projects are changing work culture, as reports indicate that staff raised concerns about company plans involving employee device activity and data collection, including their keyboard strokes, movement of their mouse and what content is displayed on their screen, tied to AI training efforts, while others voiced frustration online about morale and uncertainty.

Investors have also questioned whether the spending will pay off, as analysts quoted by Bloomberg estimated the layoffs save roughly US$3 billion (about S$3.8 billion), which remains small compared with Meta’s bigger AI spending plans.

Company performance no longer guarantees workforce stability without AI skills to back it up

Singapore has spent years building itself into a regional technology hub, which makes news like this increasingly local, even when decisions are made elsewhere because global restructuring now arrives instantly through inboxes, time zones and corporate calendars.

The uncomfortable lesson learned from this story is that strong company performance no longer guarantees workforce stability. Businesses are changing how work gets organised, and AI investment is becoming part of that calculation.

The wise and practical way forward is not to fear technology or to assume jobs will vanish overnight due to AI disruptions. Rather, it’s better to focus on upgrading personal skills, work adaptability, and staying close to where value is created to stay safe, as in remaining employed as long as possible.

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