Meta, the parent company of Facebook, will lay off about 600 people in the artificial intelligence (AI) institutional sector.
According to local outlets including the New York Times (NYT) on the 22nd, the restructuring will take place within the "Superintelligence Lab," a core organization that oversees Meta's entire AI projects. Those affected were notified that day, and the company is considering reassigning some employees to other departments. Meta's AI organization numbers in the thousands, but the exact headcount is unknown. Meta said the layoffs are meant to address organizational bloat caused by excessive hiring over the past three years.
Meta has recruited world-class AI talent in recent years. On June in , it invested $14.3 billion (about 20.526 trillion won) in the AI Start - Up "Scale AI," co-founded by Alexander Wang, and later brought in Wang and other key talent. It has also focused on strengthening AI capabilities by scouting talent from OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft (MS) with compensation packages worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
New hires brought in to develop "superintelligence," which surpasses human intelligence, including Wang, Meta's new chief AI officer, were not included in the layoffs. In a memo to employees, Wang said, "If we reduce the team size, decision-making will be simpler and each person's responsibility and impact will grow."
The large-scale layoffs reflect the pressure Meta faces amid intensifying AI competition since the launch of ChatGPT. While Meta owns platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, it has been seen as lagging in AI as OpenAI, Google, and MS have rapidly rolled out next-generation AI products.
Initially, it drew attention with the open-source AI model "Llama," but product development was delayed for 18 months, and "Llama 4," released in April, fell short of expectations. In response, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mark Zuckerberg began an extensive reorganization of the AI group.
A Meta official said, "These layoffs do not mean a reduction in the AI business," and noted, "Developing superintelligence remains CEO Zuckerberg's top priority."