Snapchat CEO’s Coachella Celebration Sparks Controversy Amid Major Company Layoffs

Evan Spiegel, the CEO of Snapchat, usually has a keen understanding of optics—considering his pivotal role at the helm of the picture messaging platform. However, this weekend seemed to tell a different story.

Spiegel, who co-founded Snapchat, was spotted indulging in festivities with his supermodel wife, Miranda Kerr, even as his company prepared to implement significant layoffs affecting 1,000 employees at its Santa Monica headquarters.

The couple shared affectionate photos, seen enjoying themselves at the Coachella music festival on Friday, just days before the anticipated job cuts were set to take place.

In the images circulating on social media, Spiegel donned a casual look with a baseball cap, sunglasses, and a bandanna as he lovingly kissed Kerr on the forehead amidst a lively crowd.

Miranda Kerr, the 42-year-old former Victoria’s Secret Angel, shared a series of photos and videos on Instagram, capturing moments of her enjoying performances by artists like Sabrina Carpenter. She captioned her post, “A day in the desert.”

The 42-year-old former Victoria’s Secret Angel posted a collage of photos and videos on Instagram of her watching artists like Sabrina Carpenter. “A day in the desert,” she captioned the post.

Meanwhile Spiegel’s employees are feeling deserted after it was revealed the company plans to slash about 1,000 jobs and rely on artificial intelligence to take over their work.

Spiegel’s decision to party as his company lays off employees drew some backlash, including suggestions that it could radicalize workers.

“This picture just launched 1,000 [Zohran Mamdanis],” Barstool founder Dave Portnoy wrote about Spiegel’s Coachella photo on X. “Reminds me of Gaz celebrating with Rick Ross the day BI hit piece came out,” he added in another post.

The layoffs boosted the company’s stock 7% on the initial news, though the stock fell slightly during Thursday morning trading.

The 34-year-old previously apologized for the layoffs, saying he was “deeply sorry,” for the cuts, which amount to 16% of the company’s workforce.

“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,” Spiegel said in the layoff memo.

The company is also closing hiring for more than 300 open roles. He’s hoping AI tools will boost the company’s hopes.

“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,” Speigel added.

It’ll also help the company “establish a clearer path to net-income profitability,” with a cost savings of more than $500 million by the second half of this year, he said.

Spiegel co-founded Snap Inc. in 2015, the same year he was named the world’s youngest billionaire at the age of 24.

Silicon Valley layoffs are becoming more common. Other tech companies like Meta, Oracle, and Block are sending employees packing.

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