Mark Zuckerberg gave an update on ‘Meta's 4 am layoff email’ to employees

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg delivered an update on the company's recent layoffs during a recent earnings call. In May 2026, Meta announced it would be eliminating approximately 8,000 positions, leading to thousands of employees receiving notification emails outlining severance, visa status, and continued access to company systems. The email instructed impacted employees to visit the Alumni portal within an hour of losing access to their systems.

Meta reported a Q2 revenue of $60.8 billion, marking a 28% increase year-over-year, though total expenses surged to $42 billion, a 55% rise. This spike was primarily due to increased employee compensation, infrastructure costs, legal fees, and third-party AI token expenses. Zuckerberg attributed $1.2 billion of the Q2 expenses to severance costs related to the headcount reduction in May 2026.

The company ended the quarter with 75,000 employees, a 3% decrease from Q1, with roughly 8,000 of those impacted by the layoffs. Zuckerberg expects most of the affected employees will be removed from the headcount by the end of Q3 2026. The CEO also explained that the majority of the compensation growth was driven by technical hires, particularly in AI-related areas.

Infrastructure costs increased due to higher depreciation, data center operations, and third-party cloud spending. Meta's GAAP operating income for the quarter was $18.8 billion, a 8% year-over-year decline and a 31% operating margin. Excluding severance and legal charges, the operating income would have grown by 9% compared to the previous year.