Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta Platforms.
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Meta will lay off roughly 600 workers inside its artificial intelligence unit as the corporate appears to cut back layers and function extra nimbly, a spokesperson confirmed to CNBC on Wednesday.
The corporate introduced the cuts in a memo from its Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang, who was employed in June as a part of Meta’s $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI. Staff throughout Meta’s AI infrastructure models, Elementary Synthetic Intelligence Analysis unit and different product-related positions will likely be impacted.
Axios was first to report the cuts.
Meta notified not less than some workers on Wednesday that Nov. 21 is their termination date and, till then, they’re in a “non-working discover interval.”
“Throughout this time, your inside entry will likely be eliminated and you do not want to do any extra work for Meta,” mentioned the message, which was considered by CNBC. “You could use this time to seek for one other function at Meta.”
The corporate additionally mentioned it is paying 16 weeks of severance plus two weeks for each accomplished 12 months of service, “minus your discover interval.”
Meta has been aggressively overhauling its strategy to AI in latest months as it really works to maintain tempo with rivals like OpenAI and Google, pouring billions of {dollars} into infrastructure initiatives and recruitment.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg had grown frustrated with Meta’s progress in AI, particularly after the launch of its Llama 4 AI models in April acquired a lukewarm response from builders.
Following Meta’s large funding in Scale AI, Zuckerberg unveiled a brand new unit referred to as Meta Superintelligence Labs that is made up of high AI researchers and engineers. The group is led by Wang and former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman.
Throughout the firm’s second-quarter earnings name in July, Meta mentioned it expects its complete bills for 2025 to return within the vary of $114 billion and $118 billion, elevating the low finish of its earlier outlook. That quantity is just anticipated to extend, as Meta mentioned its AI initiatives will “end in a 2026 year-over-year expense development fee that’s above the 2025 expense development.”
Meta is scheduled to report third-quarter outcomes subsequent week.
On Tuesday, Meta introduced a $27 billion deal with Blue Owl Capital to fund and develop its large Hyperion information middle in rural Louisiana. The info middle is anticipated to be massive sufficient to cowl a “vital a part of the footprint of Manhattan,” Zuckerberg said in a submit in July.
–CNBC’s Jonathan Vanian and Salvador Rodriguez contributed to this report
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