Meta restructures superintelligence lab, lays off 600 employees in efficiency push

Following the recruitment of over 50 top AI researchers from OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic with multimillion-dollar offers, Meta’s layoffs aim to streamline its AI operations, eliminate redundancies, and reassign affected employees without scaling back its AI ambitions

Meta is set to lay off approximately 600 employees from its superintelligence lab, marking a major restructuring of its artificial intelligence operations, according to a report by Axios. The move was confirmed in an internal memo from Alexandr Wang, Meta’s Chief AI Officer, and aligns with CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s broader “Year of Efficiency” initiative aimed at streamlining the company.

In his memo, Wang emphasized that reducing team size will accelerate decision-making and increase individual accountability. “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,” he noted. The restructuring is intended to simplify workflows and ensure that employees have clearer responsibilities and greater influence on projects.

AI hiring and internal reorganisation

The layoffs come after a busy summer for Meta’s AI recruitment efforts, which saw the company hire more than 50 leading researchers from rival firms including OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic. Reports indicate that Meta offered multimillion-dollar packages to attract top talent in a highly competitive market. Despite the reductions, the company is not stepping back from its AI ambitions; rather, the changes aim to eliminate redundancies and sharpen focus within its AI divisions. Internal discussions suggest that most affected employees are expected to be reassigned to other roles within Meta.

Competing in the AI race

Meta continues to compete aggressively with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind to develop next-generation AI models. Its superintelligence lab focuses on large-scale model training, AI reasoning, and multimodal systems, key areas where rivals have made rapid progress.

The restructuring highlights the challenges of sustaining innovation while managing operational costs in the costly and fast-moving AI landscape. As Meta works to balance efficiency with its long-term AI objectives, industry observers will closely monitor how these changes impact its pursuit of artificial general intelligence (AGI) and competitiveness in the broader AI market.