Meta announced internally on Thursday the dismissal of 8,000 people, or about 10% of its workforce, a source close to the matter told AFP, while several reported a vast voluntary redundancy plan at Microsoft.

In a memo, Meta's head of human resources, Janelle Gale, justified this decision by the desire to "manage the company more efficiently and offset the investments" of the group, which is engaged in a frantic race for artificial intelligence (AI).

The parent company of social networks Facebook and Instagram had 78,865 employees at the end of December, according to documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In addition to layoffs, the company will eliminate 6,000 currently vacant positions, the same source confirmed, corroborating a report by Bloomberg.

For its part, Microsoft announced internally on Thursday a voluntary redundancy plan that could affect up to 7% of its teams, or about 8,750 people, several American media outlets reported.

When contacted by AFP, the Redmond, Washington-based company did not immediately respond. This is the first voluntary redundancy plan in the group's history.

On the Meta side, even though AI was not highlighted to contextualize the contraction announced on Thursday, at the end of January, CEO Mark Zuckerberg had made a direct link between this technology and cost savings.

"Projects that previously would have required large teams are now being carried out by a single highly talented individual," he stated. As a result, "we are focusing on individual contributions and reducing team sizes."

At the same time, Meta is spending colossal sums on the development and use of AI.

The Menlo Park (California) company plans to invest between $115 and $135 billion in 2026, largely to ensure sufficient capacity for AI, from chips to data centers.

In late February, Meta reported an agreement with the American company AMD for the purchase of millions of chips, for at least $60 billion.

For Wedbush Securities analysts, despite the amounts invested, Meta's AI strategy "is more disciplined" than in the previous cycle, which focused on the "metaverse" (virtual universe), and ended in a financial fiasco.

"We are confident in the management's ability to navigate this transition period," they added.