Key Highlights
- Significant Job Cuts: Meta is eliminating approximately 600 positions from its established AI divisions, including the prestigious FAIR research lab.
- Strategic Reorganization: An internal memo from Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang reveals the cuts are designed to dismantle bureaucracy and create a more agile, high-impact team.
- Zuckerberg’s Dissatisfaction: The shake-up follows CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s growing concerns that existing AI efforts were not producing necessary breakthroughs.
- Pivoting to a New Lab: While cutting roles in older units, Meta is actively hiring top talent for its newly formed and strategically important TBD Lab.
Meta Overhauls AI Division, Slashing Hundreds of Jobs
In a decisive and strategic overhaul, Meta is cutting several hundred roles within its core artificial intelligence unit, even as it aggressively recruits for a newer, more focused lab. An internal memo obtained by Axios confirms that the tech giant concluded its long-standing AI efforts had become bogged down by bureaucracy, prompting a reorganization aimed at fostering agility and accelerating progress toward superintelligence.
The Drive to Eliminate Bureaucracy
According to the memo from Meta’s Chief AI Officer, Alexandr Wang, the company is cutting roughly 600 positions from its superintelligence lab. The move impacts several key areas, including the fundamental research-focused FAIR AI lab, product-related AI teams, and AI infrastructure units.
“By reducing the size of our team, fewer conversations will be required to make a decision, and each person will be more load-bearing and have more scope and impact,” Wang wrote, signaling a clear shift towards a leaner, more efficient operational model.
This restructuring stems from concerns reportedly raised by CEO Mark Zuckerberg several months ago. He believed the company’s existing AI structure was not yielding the breakthroughs or performance improvements needed to compete at the highest level. This realization triggered the reorganization, the creation of the new TBD Lab, and a massive $15 billion investment in Scale AI, which coincided with Wang’s hiring.
A Tale of Two Labs: Cuts and Hires
While hundreds of employees face uncertainty, Meta is making it clear that this is a strategic pivot, not a blanket cost-cutting measure. The newly formed TBD Lab unit is not only spared from the cuts but is also the focus of an aggressive hiring campaign to attract elite industry talent.
Recent high-profile hires for TBD Lab include OpenAI research scientist Ananya Kumar and Andrew Tulloch, a co-founder of Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines. This demonstrates Meta’s commitment to staffing its new venture with proven innovators.
For those impacted by the layoffs, the company is encouraging them to apply for other open positions within Meta. Wang’s memo expressed a desire to retain the talent internally, stating, “This is a talented group of individuals, and we need their skills in other parts of the company.”
Despite the immediate disruption, the leadership message is one of forward-looking confidence. “I’m really excited about the models we’re training, our compute plans and the products we’re building,” Wang concluded in his memo. “And I’m confident in our path to build towards superintelligence.”
Image Referance: https://www.axios.com/2025/10/22/meta-superintelligence-tbd-ai-reorg