Snap is laying off around 1,000 employees, the Snapchat parent confirmed today. Specs Inc., its recently formed AR glasses subsidiary, is reportedly not being affected, however, as the cuts are aimed at further insulating the traditional Snapchat business from its new AR subsidiary.
Spiegel announced the news in an internal memo, published by Business Insider, which is confirmed to affect 1,000 team members, including 16% of Snap’s full-time employees. Spiegel also confirmed Snap has now closed more than 300 open roles.
“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,” Spiegel says in the memo. “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 Spiegel hasn’t confirmed the fate of Specs Inc. specifically, according to a report by Alex Heath’s Sources the company’s AR glasses subsidiary is slated to actually add employees ahead of launch of its sixth-gen Specs AR glasses, which is expected sometime this fall.
The report further maintains Snap was unable to secure a proposed $1 billion to fund its Specs division, although the company is still hoping to raise capital once its AR glasses release.
The next-gen Specs AR glasses are slated to be revealed “in the next couple of months, loosely modeled on Apple’s Vision Pro rollout, followed by a consumer release in the fall,” Heath writes.
The comes weeks after Irenic Capital Management, which holds economic interest of about 2.5% in Snap, put pressure on the company to either spin off or shut down Specs Inc.
According to a Reuters last month, the activist investor also called on Snap to consider cutting costs through layoffs and to buy back more discounted stock, among other moves, which at the time of this writing seems to be the course the company has taken.
This follows recent news that Specs Inc. and chip maker Qualcomm have signed a multi-year partnership for Snap’s upcoming AR glasses, with Qualcomm pledging Snapdragon chips for future iterations—seemingly signaling confidence that Snap is betting on the success of Specs.
Read the full memo from Snap CEO Evan Spiegel below, courtesy Business Insider:
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
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