Meta Cuts 600 AI Jobs to Stay Nimble After Rapid Hiring Spree
Zuckerberg’s AI Expansion Faces a Sharp Turn
Months after going on a massive billion-dollar hiring spree to build its dream AI division, Meta has announced a major round of layoffs — cutting about 600 jobs in its AI Superintelligence Labs.
The move, confirmed internally on October 22, marks a swift shift from rapid expansion to strategic consolidation, as CEO Mark Zuckerberg seeks to make Meta’s AI operations faster, leaner, and more efficient amid cutthroat competition from OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic.
1. Meta Trims 600 Roles in AI Superintelligence Labs
According to an internal memo obtained by Bloomberg, Meta’s AI Superintelligence Labs, one of its most ambitious internal projects, will part ways with around 600 employees.
Ironically, this comes just months after Meta aggressively hired top specialists from Apple, OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and Elon Musk’s xAI.
Despite these cuts, the company’s elite TBD Lab — a unit composed of high-profile recruits — remains unaffected. Executives say the shake-up is part of a strategic reorganisation to eliminate excess management layers and improve team coordination.
This adjustment reflects a growing Silicon Valley philosophy: “Stay small, move fast, and build smarter AI.”
2. Meta’s AI Chief Calls It a Push for Efficiency
Meta’s Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang addressed the layoffs in a memo emphasizing the company’s need to speed up decision-making.
“By reducing the size of our team, fewer conversations will be required to make decisions. Each person will be more load-bearing and have more scope and impact,” Wang explained.
Meta believes a streamlined workforce will accelerate project execution and remove bureaucratic friction. This echoes the company’s broader philosophy championed by CEO Zuckerberg — “faster execution delivers greater innovation.”
The decision aligns with Meta’s recent efforts to balance ambitious research with real-world production speed in AI.
3. Laid-Off Employees Encouraged to Reapply Internally
Interestingly, the layoffs do not signal a complete exit for all affected staff. Multiple reports suggest that Meta is encouraging laid-off employees to pursue other roles within the company.
A source close to the firm told Bloomberg that Meta continues to hire across other AI verticals, indicating that the layoffs are more of a restructuring than downsizing.
Earlier, Axios reported that Meta was rebalancing its workforce to focus on projects with stronger commercial and strategic outcomes.
4. Hiring Freeze in AI Division Set the Stage
The warning signs began surfacing in August, when The Wall Street Journal revealed that Meta had paused hiring across its AI Superintelligence units.
Although a Meta spokesperson described it as “standard organisational planning,” insiders saw it as a precursor to the current layoffs.
Meta cited the need to solidify the structure of its new AI unit after “rapid expansion” — a necessary step before the next growth phase. That “planning phase” is now unfolding as a well-defined realignment, reflecting a company recalibrating after a hiring rush.
5. Zuckerberg’s AI Gamble Sparks Mixed Reactions
High Stakes, High Speed, and High Turnover
Zuckerberg has been unapologetic about his determination to make AI Meta’s top priority, pouring billions into hiring and infrastructure. Reports earlier this year claimed Meta was offering $100–$200 million packages to attract AI talent — an allegation Zuckerberg later called “inaccurate but partly true.”
That aggressive talent acquisition came at a cost. By August 2025, Meta had already seen three key hires leave — Rishabh Agarwal, Avi Verma, and Ethan Knight — two of whom returned to OpenAI.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman publicly criticised Meta’s headhunting methods, calling them “distasteful.”
Zuckerberg’s approach, however, seems consistent: hire fast, cut faster, and keep Meta’s AI ecosystem quick on its feet in one of the most volatile technological races of this era.
Why Meta’s AI Course Correction Matters
Balancing Growth With Agility
Meta’s pivot comes at a defining moment for the AI industry. The company is investing heavily to build systems capable of superintelligent AI, while contending with internal inefficiencies and fierce market rivalry.
By trimming teams, Meta hopes to:
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Speed up product development and research cycles.
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Empower smaller, load-bearing teams to execute decisively.
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Cut bureaucratic delays that stall innovation.
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Reallocate talent to more critical projects within its AI ecosystem.
This recalibration highlights a broader industry truth — AI’s future depends as much on organizational agility as it does on computing power.
Meta’s Ongoing AI Vision
Despite the controversy, Zuckerberg remains optimistic. His goal is to position Meta as a leading force in open-source and generative AI, rivaling OpenAI’s ChatGPT while building advanced language, video, and social media automation tools.
Meta’s long-term investments include:
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The development of Llama 3, Meta’s next-generation open AI model.
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Expansion of its AI Infrastructure Lab with NVIDIA and custom Meta hardware.
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Integration of AI assistants across Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook.
These bold moves ensure Meta stays central in an AI arms race reshaping global tech.
Meta’s decision to cut 600 jobs in its AI Superintelligence Labs may appear drastic, but it’s a strategic shift to enhance efficiency, accelerate innovation, and recalibrate focus.
Zuckerberg’s AI-first philosophy has fueled both optimism and skepticism — yet one thing remains clear: in the high-speed race for artificial superintelligence, the winners will not just build powerful models but run lean, fast, and adaptive teams.
For now, Meta is tightening its grip on the future — one bold restructure at a time.
FAQs
Q1. Why is Meta cutting AI jobs now?
Meta is restructuring to streamline workflows and make its AI teams leaner for faster execution amid growing competition in AI research.
Q2. How many Meta employees are affected?
Approximately 600 employees from the company’s AI Superintelligence Labs are being impacted by this restructuring.
Q3. Are all AI divisions affected by layoffs?
No. The TBD Lab, Meta’s elite AI innovation group, remains untouched by the layoffs.
Q4. Does Meta plan more layoffs?
There’s no confirmation of further cuts. Instead, Meta is encouraging affected employees to apply for roles in other AI departments.
Q5. What is Meta’s AI strategy moving forward?
Meta will continue focusing on superintelligence research, open-source models like Llama 3, and deeper AI integration across its platforms.
