Investing.com -- Meta Platforms Inc. plans to cut 10% of its workforce, or roughly 8,000 employees, in an effort to boost efficiency and offset heavy spending on artificial intelligence, according to a Bloomberg report on Thursday.

The company disclosed the move in a memo sent to employees Thursday, saying the layoffs will come on May 20. Meta also won't hire workers for 6,000 open roles that it had intended to fill.

Meta alluded to its AI spending in the memo, which was written by Janelle Gale, chief people officer. "We're doing this as part of our continued effort to run the company more efficiently and to allow us to offset the other investments we're making," she wrote in the note.

The job cuts come as Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg is spending on the talent and infrastructure needed to develop artificial intelligence products, including large language models and chatbots. Meta already projected record capital expenditures this year, and has announced several multibillion-dollar deals with AI partners over the past few months. Employees have been encouraged to use AI agents internally to help with writing code and other tasks.

Gale said that the company was announcing the layoffs early since details of the plan had already leaked. Reuters first reported on Meta's planned workforce reductions earlier this month.

"I know this is unwelcome news and confirming this puts everyone in an uneasy state, but we feel this is the best path forward, given the circumstances," Gale wrote.

Meta had almost 79,000 employees at the start of the year. The company is scheduled to report first quarter earnings next week.

In the US, laid-off employees will receive 16 weeks base pay plus two weeks for every year of employment. The company will also cover the cost of COBRA health care coverage for US employees and their families for 18 months. Packages outside the US will be similar but vary by country.