Meta Platforms has disclosed plans to eliminate nearly 200 workers at its Burlingame and Sunnyvale offices in California, according to state WARN filings first reported by the San Francisco Chronicle. The cuts are set to take effect in late May 2026 and represent the latest chapter in a broader workforce restructuring that has run in parallel with the company's record-level investment in artificial intelligence.
The California WARN Act requires employers with 75 or more workers to file advance notice of mass layoffs at least 60 days before the effective date. Meta's filing covering Burlingame and Sunnyvale identifies positions set for elimination by late May, though the full job function breakdown has not been disclosed publicly. Both offices have housed teams across hardware, augmented reality, and infrastructure functions.
A Meta spokesperson described the reductions as part of standard operational planning: “Teams across Meta regularly restructure or implement changes to ensure they're in the best position to achieve their goals,” the company said, adding it would seek to place affected employees in alternative roles where feasible.
The Bay Area reductions are the fourth disclosed round of Meta job cuts in 2026. The sequence began in January, when the company shed more than 1,000 employees from its Reality Labs division, the unit responsible for Quest headsets and the metaverse platform. A second wave in February eliminated over 100 additional Bay Area positions.
On March 25, Meta carried out a broader round, cutting approximately 700 employees across Reality Labs, Facebook product, recruiting, global sales, and operations, per reporting by CNBC and the New York Times. A separate WARN filing in Washington state around the same time identified 168 positions in Seattle, Redmond, and Bellevue set for elimination starting May 8.
The layoffs arrive as Meta simultaneously announces its largest capital expenditure program in company history. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has confirmed the company plans to spend between $60 billion and $65 billion on infrastructure in 2026, the majority directed at AI data centers, custom silicon, and model training capacity.
Meta's AI product surface now includes the Meta AI assistant embedded across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger, as well as the Llama family of open-weight models, which the company distributes under a custom open license. Zuckerberg has framed the workforce reductions not as a cost-cutting exercise but as a reallocation, shifting headcount away from legacy functions toward AI engineering and infrastructure roles.
The strategy mirrors the approach Meta publicly described during its 2023 “Year of Efficiency,” which eliminated roughly 21,000 jobs but preceded a sharp recovery in revenue and operating margins. In 2025, Meta reported full-year revenue of $164.5 billion and operating income of $68.6 billion, record figures for the company. Whether the 2026 restructuring follows the same script depends on how quickly the AI product investments translate into monetizable engagement.
Reality Labs, which houses the Quest headset line, Ray-Ban smart glasses, and the abandoned Horizon Worlds metaverse platform, remains the division most visibly affected by the cuts. The unit has posted cumulative operating losses exceeding $60 billion since 2019 and has become the subject of recurring investor scrutiny. Despite the losses, Zuckerberg has consistently defended the investment as positioning Meta for the next computing platform cycle.
The January 2026 Reality Labs layoffs followed a wave of departures among senior engineers and product leaders in late 2025. Multiple former employees told the New York Times and The Verge that internal morale within the unit declined sharply after Meta scaled back Horizon Worlds development and pivoted resources toward AI agents and on-device inference for Ray-Ban glasses.
Under the California WARN Act, affected employees at the Burlingame and Sunnyvale offices are entitled to 60 days of advance notice or equivalent pay in lieu of notice. Meta's filing suggests the company has chosen to honor the full notice period, with the late-May effective date consistent with a filing submitted in late March or early April.
Employees covered by the Washington state WARN filing face a similar timeline, with the May 8 effective date indicating the notice was filed in early March. Both filings are publicly accessible through the respective state labor agencies. Affected workers in California can also access rapid-response services through the Employment Development Department, which coordinates with the employer during mass layoff events.
Meta has not disclosed severance terms publicly. In prior rounds, the company offered packages that included 16 weeks of base pay plus two additional weeks per year of tenure, along with extended medical benefits and outplacement services.
Sources: [1] San Francisco Chronicle, Meta California WARN filing. [2] CNBC, Meta March 25 layoffs. [3] The New York Times, Meta March 2026 cuts. [4] Washington State WARN notice. [5] Yahoo Finance, Meta Bay Area layoffs April 2026.
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Connan Boyle