Meta cuts 600 workers in AI unit as it races to compete in tech boom

Naomi Nix

Washington Post·

22 Oct, 2025 09:45 PM2 mins to read

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Meta is cutting 600 positions in its AI unit to streamline decision-making and increase impact. Photo / Getty Images

Meta is cutting roughly 600 positions in its artificial intelligence unit, in a reorganisation of its workforce to better compete in the global artificial intelligence race.

Meta chief artificial intelligence (AI) officer Alexandr Wang, who was poached earlier this year from the start-up Scale AI, informed employees in a memo
on Wednesday that the cuts were designed to reduce the size of the team and quicken decision-making so that the AI team can have more impact.

The move was first reported by Axios and later confirmed by Meta spokesman Dave Arnold.

The cuts will affect the company’s product AI teams, AI infrastructure teams and the Fair AI research department, which are part of an overarching “superintelligence” lab that has several thousand employees. The cuts will not affect Meta’s newly created TBD lab, Meta confirmed. Meta is still expected to continue hiring for the lab.

The reorganisation is the latest in a string of changes that started this year when Meta created a new team dedicated to creating superintelligence, a term for machines hoped to one day outperform humans. Meta announced it was making a US$14.3 billion ($24.9b) investment in AI start-up Scale AI and then brought in Wang, who founded the start-up, to lead the company’s AI division.