This is the Daily Tech News for Wednesday, April 15th, 2026. We tell you what you need to know,

give you important context and help each other understand. Today, did SNAP layoff people

because of AI or just to save money. Or why not both?

I'm Tom Merritt.

And I'm Sarah Lane.

Let's start with what you need to know with the big story.

That is correct.

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel sent a memo to employees on Wednesday, saying it plans to lay off about 1,000 employees, which would be about 16% of its workforce.

It will also close around 300 open positions, so things that they were going to hire for,

they will not.

If you're an employee in the U.S. of SNAP and you get laid off, they say you'll receive

four months of severance, health care coverage, equity vesting, and transition support.

The move was positioned in his memo largely as cost savings.

They say that they'll get about $500 million annually of savings.

This also comes after an activist investor, I rent a capital management, which just

bought a stake in SN snap, had been pressuring

it to reduce its workforce, saying you're among the companies that overhired back in the pandemic.

It's long overdue for you to cut back.

Spiegel also wrote that remaining employees can use new generative models to help make up the

gap.

He wrote, we have already witnessed small squads leveraging AI tools to drive meaningful progress

across several important initiatives, including Snapchat Plus, enhanced ad platform performance,

...