Evan Spiegel was spotted enjoying the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in California with his supermodel girlfriend Miranda Kerr. The billionaire co-founder and CEO of Snap Inc has returned to announce layoffs affecting around 1,000 employees. Spiegel (34) identified artificial intelligence as the key reason for the cuts.
Miranda Kerr posted a series of videos and photos from the festival on Instagram. The 42-year-old Australian supermodel and former Victoria’s Secret Angel described the gallery simply as “A day in the desert”. One video shows her cuddling up to Spiegel as he plants a kiss on her forehead.
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Kerr dressed in a green tank top, black pants and gold hoop earrings. She wore her hair in waves. Spiegel kept it low-key in a black top, sunglasses, a baseball cap and a black and white scarf.
The couple watched performances by artists including Sabrina Carpenter, The xx and Holly Humberstone.
Back to the office: 1,000 jobs gone
The festive images are in stark contrast to what followed. Snap Inc., the parent company of photo and video sharing app Snapchat, has announced it will cut about 1,000 jobs, or about 16% of its total workforce. The announcement was made via an internal memo that Spiegel sent to employees.
Spiegel said in the report that the layoffs were “necessary” to move Snap toward profitability. Advances in AI would allow the company to do more with fewer people, he said.
“While these changes are necessary to realize Snap’s long-term potential, we believe the rapid advancements in AI will allow our teams to reduce repetitive work, increase speed and better support our community, partners and advertisers,” Spiegel wrote.
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The cuts followed a letter from activist investor Irenic Capital Management to Spiegel last month. It forced him to cut costs and staff while criticizing the company’s current business strategy.
Reaction on social networks
Social media reacted to Spiegel enjoying himself at Coachella 2026 around the same time his staff was fired.
“He’s rich, not his employees. Why the claim?” wondered a social media user.
“Why can’t people still see that the top 1% don’t care about the bottom 99%? Making a fortune is great, but expanding wealth and having more and more money than you can ever spend is just greed!” another user commented.
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One user wrote: “This is why I loathe capitalism. Having been fired more times than I can count in my 35 years as a software engineer, people give their all, then get ripped off so the company can make even more money. SICK.”
“The billionaire CEO doesn’t even care about his employees, that’s shocking,” came the sarcastic reply.
The AI excuse?
Snap’s move is part of a broader wave of layoffs in the tech industry, in which companies have cited AI as justification for downsizing. Microsoft, Amazon, Oracle and others have made similar cuts.
However, several experts and former employees have questioned whether AI is really replacing workers. They wondered if artificial intelligence was simply being used as a convenient excuse to downsize.
Even venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, who supports AI, recently said that some firms are using AI as a cover for being previously overwhelmed.
“Now everyone has a silver lining: oh, it’s AI,” Andreessen said at 20VC with Harry Stebbings.
