iWorld
Dhruv Chadha Bids Farewell to Meta After 13.5 Years
MUMBAI: What do you say about an executive who has spent his entire working career with one company and has seen it grow from a $5 billion venture to $100 billion?
Well, you say salaam Dhruv Chadha!
The senior regional business leader at Meta, has finally decided to say ta-ta to Meta after almost 14 years (13.5 years to be precise) of service. Based in Singapore, his last day at the company will be 31 January 2025.
During his tenure, Chadha played a pivotal role in driving Meta’s growth across emerging markets in Asia through strategic sales and innovative go-to-market strategies. He worked extensively on delivering industry-first solutions and guiding key industry clients to navigate the evolving digital landscape.
Reflecting on his journey, Chadha expressed gratitude for the opportunities offered by Meta’s leadership and highlighted the company’s exponential revenue growth from $5 billion in 2011 to over $100 billion within a decade. “It’s been a journey of a lifetime, collaborating to solve unique challenges—from reaching customers in the deepest parts of emerging Asia through feature phones to enabling digital-first businesses to build purchase journeys on WhatsApp,” he shared.
Chadha also credited mentors and colleagues, including Kirthiga Reddy, Reynold D’Silva, and Jordi Fornies, for their support throughout his journey.
Looking ahead, Chadha indicated plans to explore the tech and advertising industry from a new perspective, promising further updates soon.
In addition to his role at Meta, Chadha has served as an early-stage investor in Nanoclean Global, a startup recognised by the South Korean government as one of the top 25 technical startups globally and awarded India’s President’s Startup of the Year. Nanoclean’s affordable air filtration technology aims to make clean air accessible to all.
iWorld
Meta plans 8,000 layoffs in new AI-led restructuring wave
First phase from May 20 may cut 10 per cent workforce amid AI pivot.
MUMBAI: At Meta, the future may be artificial but the cuts are very real. The social media giant is reportedly preparing a fresh round of layoffs, with an initial wave expected to impact around 8,000 employees as it doubles down on its artificial intelligence ambitions. According to a Reuters report, the first phase of job cuts is slated to begin on May 20, targeting roughly 10 per cent of Meta’s global workforce. With nearly 79,000 employees on its rolls as of December 31, the move marks one of the company’s most significant workforce reductions in recent years.
And this may only be the beginning. Sources indicate that additional layoffs are being planned for the second half of the year, although the scale and timing remain fluid, likely to be shaped by how Meta’s AI capabilities evolve in the coming months. Earlier reports had suggested that total cuts in 2026 could reach 20 per cent or more of its workforce.
The restructuring comes as chief executive Mark Zuckerberg continues to steer the company towards an AI-first operating model, committing hundreds of billions of dollars to the transition. Internally, this shift is already visible: teams within Reality Labs have been reorganised, engineers have been moved into a newly formed Applied AI unit, and a Meta Small Business division has been created to align with broader structural changes.
The trend is hardly isolated. Across the tech sector, companies are trimming headcount while investing aggressively in automation. Amazon, for instance, has reportedly cut around 30,000 corporate roles nearly 10 per cent of its white-collar workforce citing efficiency gains driven by AI. Data from Layoffs.fyi shows over 73,000 tech employees have already lost jobs this year, compared with 153,000 in all of 2024.
For Meta, the move echoes its earlier “year of efficiency” in 2022–23, when about 21,000 roles were eliminated amid slowing growth and market pressures. This time, however, the backdrop is different. The company is financially stronger, generating over $200 billion in revenue and $60 billion in profit last year, with shares up 3.68 per cent year-to-date though still below last summer’s peak.
That contrast underlines the shift underway. These layoffs are less about survival and more about reinvention. As Meta restructures itself around AI from autonomous coding agents to advanced machine learning systems, the question is no longer whether the company will change, but how many roles will be left unchanged when it does.
