Meta started carrying out the layoff wave announced in April and detailed in early May, with the first round of terminations hitting on May 20. CEO Mark Zuckerberg framed the restructuring as a deliberate pivot toward AI, reducing traditional engineering headcount while simultaneously committing $21B to CoreWeave for AI cloud infrastructure. The cuts affect roughly 8,000 employees, or about 10% of the company, across multiple divisions. The CoreWeave deal underscores that the workforce reduction is not a cost-cutting retreat but a reallocation of capital from human labor to AI infrastructure. Analysts note that a projected 20% eventual headcount reduction would mark one of the largest proportional reshapings of a major tech firm in recent memory, setting a visible precedent for how AI investment strategies translate into org-chart decisions across the industry.