Meta cuts staff and AI unit reports harsh conditions as Menlo Park footprint shrinks

Meta announced layoffs amounting to 10% of its global workforce, including 2,570 jobs in Menlo Park, California. The cuts reduced the company's Menlo Park headcount from about 18,500 in 2020‑21 to roughly 12,159 in fiscal year 2023‑24. Despite the staffing decline, Meta’s property holdings in the city remain a major tax base, valued at about $4 billion across subsidiaries such as Hibiscus Properties LLC and Facebook.

Within the same period, Meta’s three‑month‑old Applied AI team—about 6,500 engineers and product managers—has been described by employees as a "soul‑crushing gulag." Workers say they were forced into the unit, tasked with generating puzzles and code for AI training, and have staged a petition protesting extensive click‑ and keystroke‑monitoring. Chief product officer Chris Cox called the environment "brutal," and CEO Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged the distress in an internal memo, promising corrective actions.