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Meta Slashes 600 AI Jobs After Hiring Frenzy
22 Oct
Summary
- Meta to cut 600 AI jobs from its superintelligence division
- Hiring spree led by Zuckerberg offered huge bonuses up to $100M
- Layoffs primarily affecting managers and Facebook AI Research unit
In October 2025, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, announced it would be cutting 600 jobs from its artificial intelligence (AI) division. This comes after a multibillion-dollar hiring spree led by Meta's founder, Mark Zuckerberg, who personally recruited dozens of talented AI researchers from rival companies by offering vast bonuses and share deals worth over $100 million.
The layoffs will primarily impact managers and members of Meta's Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research (Fair) unit, which previously led much of the company's fundamental AI research. The head of Fair, Joelle Pineau, had already quit earlier this year to join an AI startup called Cohere.
Zuckerberg has been shaking up and restructuring Meta's AI division this year, delaying the release of new technologies amid concerns over their performance. He has now tasked Alexandr Wang, the former CEO of Scale AI, with leading the company's renewed AI push, focusing on "small, talent-dense teams" that can drive frontier research.
However, the first products from Meta's new superintelligence team, such as the AI video app Vibes, have been met with criticism, being described as an "infinite slop machine". The job cuts are intended to streamline decision-making and increase the impact of each remaining employee.
