---
title: 'The Pulse: Meta wanted to reduce teams by 60% because of AI'
link: https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/the-pulse-meta-wanted-to-reduce-teams
source: newsletter-pragmaticengineer-com
published: 2026-08-27T17:59:17Z
updated: 2026-08-27T17:59:17Z
first_seen: 2026-09-19T21:30:23.395188495Z
authors:
- Gergely Orosz
summary: 'We find out why Meta destroyed its standout engineering culture: it feared AI-native startups doing more with less. Also: thoughts on Ramp’s AI infra, GitHub’s load doubles in four months, and more'
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### We find out why Meta destroyed its standout engineering culture: it feared AI-native startups doing more with less. Also: thoughts on Ramp’s AI infra, GitHub’s load doubles in four months, and more

[![Gergely Orosz's avatar](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!CPFa!,w_108,h_108,c_fill,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F58fed27c-f331-4ff3-ba47-135c5a0be0ba_400x400.png)](https://substack.com/@pragmaticengineer)

Aug 27, 2026

∙ Paid

*The Pulse is a series covering events, insights, and trends within Big Tech and startups.*

Today, we cover:

1. **Did Meta really decide to reduce team sizes by 60% because of AI?** An in-depth report by Reuters details how Meta’s leadership decided to slash team sizes by 60%, hatching plans in January to execute the social media giant’s largest-ever layoffs. But …