Meta Layoffs AI Unit

Photo Credit: Farhat Altaf

Meta is laying off around 600 employees in its AI unit as the company’s new chief AI officer steps in to facilitate more nimble operation.

According to a Meta spokesperson, the company is laying off around 600 employees within its artificial intelligence unit as the company “looks to reduce layers and operate more nimbly,” CNBC reports. Staff across Meta’s AI infrastructure units and other product-related positions will be affected.

The company announced the move in a memo from its chief AI officer, Alexandr Wang, who was hired in June as part of Meta’s $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI.

Notably, the layoffs will not impact employees within TBD Labs, which includes many of the top-tier AI talent brought in over the summer, according to people familiar with the matter. Those employees who are overseen by Wang “were spared by the layoffs,” further highlighting CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s bet on his “expensive hires versus the legacy employees.”

Within the company, Meta considered its AI unit to be bloated, with increasingly more teams like FAIR and other product-oriented groups competing for resources, sources said. The layoffs are an attempt by Meta to trim the fat and further establish Wang’s role in directing the company’s evolving AI strategy.

Following the cuts, Meta’s Superintelligence Labs contains just under 3,000 employees, said those familiar with the matter. Reportedly, when the company’s new hires joined to create Superintelligence Labs, that department inherited the already-bloated Meta AI unit. These cuts are Meta’s efforts to right-size the department in the face of new leadership and top-tier hires.

At least some employees were notified on Wednesday that November 21 is their termination date. Until then, they are in a “non-working notice period.” The company also said it’s paying 16 weeks of severance plus two weeks for every completed year of service, “minus your notice period.”

On Tuesday, Meta announced a $27 billion deal with Blue Owl Capital to fund and develop its Hyperion data center in rural Louisiana. That project is slated to be large enough to cover a “significant part of the footprint of Manhattan,” Zuckerberg said over the summer.