Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, is the latest tech company to cut jobs. In a memo to employees released in a regulatory filing on Wednesday, Evan Spiegel, Snap’s co-founder and CEO, said that the company would cut 1,000 employees, about 16% of its global workforce, citing the growing ability of artificial intelligence (AI) tools.
“While these changes are necessary to realize Snap’s long-term potential, we believe that rapid advancements in artificial intelligence enable our teams to reduce repetitive work, increase velocity, and better support our community, partners, and advertisers,” Spiegel wrote, as per a report by Business Insider.
He said that the company would also shut more than 300 open roles, and that US-based employees would receive 4 months of severance, healthcare coverage, and equity vesting.
In the regulatory filing, the company said that the restructuring is expected to deliver annualised cost savings of around $500 million, as it seeks a clearer path to profitability. It described the move as part of a broader strategy shift.
“Snap faces a crucible moment — squeezed between giants with enormous resources and nimble startups moving fast,” the companies said, adding that it is now focusing on “profitable growth”.
Snap said this new strategy would include scaling its subscription business and higher-margin ad placements. It also aims to reshape its internal operations by combining human teams with “increasingly capable AI agents.”
According to the company, AI is already playing a significant role in its development processes, with at least 65% of new code now being generated by AI tools.
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Snap CEO’s memo to employees
In a memo to employees, Spiegel acknowledged the impact of the layoffs, calling them “an incredibly difficult decision” and apologising to affected employees.
Read Spiegel’s full memo below:
Dear Team,
Today we are announcing changes that will impact approximately 1,000 team members at Snap, including 16% of our full time employees, in addition to closing more than 300 open roles. This is an incredibly difficult decision, and I am deeply sorry to the colleagues who will be leaving us. You have made important contributions to Snap, and we are committed to supporting you through this transition.
Last fall, I described Snap as facing a crucible moment, requiring a new way of working that is faster and more efficient, while pivoting towards profitable growth. Over the past several months, we have carefully reviewed the work required to best serve our community and partners, and made tough choices to prioritize the investments we believe are most likely to create long-term value. As a result of these changes, we expect to reduce our annualized cost base by more than $500 million by the second half of 2026, helping to establish a clearer path to net-income profitability.
While these changes are necessary to realize Snap’s long-term potential, we believe that rapid advancements in artificial intelligence enable our teams to reduce repetitive work, increase velocity, and better support our community, partners, and advertisers. We have already witnessed small squads leveraging AI tools to drive meaningful progress across several important initiatives, including Snapchat+, enhanced ad platform performance, and efficiency improvements in our Snap Lite infrastructure.
If you are part of our North America team, please work from home today. In the US, impacted team members will receive an email notification within the next hour, including information about next steps. For non-US locations, you will receive additional details about next steps from leadership and HR.
To our departing colleagues: thank you. Your hard work has helped shape Snap, and we are deeply grateful for your contributions. For U.S.-based team members who are leaving, we will provide four months of severance, healthcare coverage, and equity vesting, along with career transition support.
Outside the U.S., we will follow local processes and seek to provide comparable support aligned with local norms.
To everyone continuing on this journey: change of this magnitude and at this speed is never easy and it will not be seamless. Thank you for your resilience, compassion, and commitment to one another, and to the community and partners we serve. Our responsibility is to move forward with clarity, empathy, and determination as we build a faster, stronger, and more durable Snap for the long term.
Evan
