Zuck fires California and Washington staff for AI bots

Big tech vibes just shifted again, because Meta is trimming real people while sprinting harder toward AI and quietly backing away from the metaverse dream.

California layoffs land first

• Meta is chopping jobs in California because its priorities keep drifting away from virtual worlds and toward artificial intelligence, and the fallout is hitting real offices on real streets.
• State filings say 219 roles disappear at the Burlingame office on Airport Boulevard in San Mateo County on March 20, which is not exactly subtle timing.
• Another 53 positions get wiped out the same day at the Playa Vista site in Los Angeles County, stacking pressure on Southern California teams.

Reality Labs takes the hit

• Reality Labs is shrinking because Meta is no longer treating virtual and augmented reality like the next guaranteed gold rush.
• Internal planning flagged roughly one-tenth of that unit for cuts earlier this month, with VR hardware crews and the metaverse social platform staring down the worst of it.
• The whole situation ties back to years of heavy spending with very little payoff, which has executives clearly losing patience.

Andrew Bosworth steps in

• Andrew Bosworth, the Meta chief technology officer overseeing Reality Labs, pushed staff toward an in-person meeting by calling it the most important one of the year, which raised eyebrows fast.
• The timing lines up with job reductions, making the message feel less like motivation and more like brace-for-impact energy.

Public silence, quiet pivot

• Meta has stayed quiet in public while internally redirecting money away from the metaverse and toward AI-powered glasses.
• Back in December, a company spokeswoman framed the shift as a change in investment focus, while stressing there were no broad shakeups planned, which aged quickly.

Washington State is not spared

• Washington State workers are also getting hit, with 331 roles scheduled to vanish by March 20 across Redmond, Bellevue, Seattle, and remote positions statewide.
• Meta confirmed these cuts are part of roughly 1,500 Reality Labs job losses spread across the country.

The money problem behind it all

• Reality Labs has burned through more than $70 billion since launching in 2020, which keeps looming larger even as Meta's advertising revenue recovers.
• AI-powered tools are propping up the core business, making the loss-heavy metaverse projects easier to sideline.

Tech layoffs spread wider

• Meta is not alone, because early-year tech layoffs are stacking up across California.
• Western Digital Technologies plans to cut 87 jobs in San Jose, adding more pressure to the local tech scene.
• Resonetics is shutting down a Menlo Park site entirely, costing 61 workers their jobs this spring.