Mark Zuckerberg spent much of this year poaching employees from rival tech companies including OpenAI, Apple and xAI for his artificial intelligence unit aka Meta’s Superintelligence Labs (MSL). Now, in October, the company’s Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang has reportedly told employees that 600 roles from the unit will be cut.
Notably, Meta’s newly formed TBD Lab group, which includes many of the highly paid recent hires, has not been hit, according to a Bloomberg report, which cited an internal memo for the details.
MSL has reportedly onboarded 50 staff, including poached employees from Apple, Anthropic, xAI, Google, and OpenAI for packages up to $100 million. Meta spent billions acquiring top talent from around the industry, including a $14.3 billion investment in data labelling startup Scale AI, which led to Wang joining Meta and leading its AI efforts.
Were there signs of an impending layoffs in the hot AI space?
A source told Bloomberg that Meta is encouraging the fired workers to apply for jobs in other departments. The person said that the company plans to keep hiring for its AI teams moving forward, as per the report.
But these layoffs were seemingly in the making. On 20 August, the Wall Street Journal reported that Meta had frozen hiring for its AI division. A spokesperson for the company told Reuters that the freeze is part of its “basic organisational planning” and that Meta is “undertaking yearly budgeting and planning exercises.”
Layoffs an industry wide trend amid AI?
Meta is not alone in its recent layoffs. We look at the other major companies that have cut AI-related roles. Some have also announced layoffs, citing the impact of AI on reshaping the industry.
- Google: In September, Google laid off over 200 contractors working on its AI projects, such as Gemini and AI Overviews, as per a Wired report. These employees were training and refining Google’s AI systems, sources told the publication. And more recently, Alphabet-owned Google on 2 October reportedly laid off 100 design department employees as part of its ongoing push to accelerate AI. The impacted employees were engaged in data, surveys, and other tools to understand and implement users’ behaviour in developing and designing products, according to a CNBC report.
- Tata Consultancy Services: Conglomerate Tata Group’s tech unit, TCS, has laid off 1% or 6,000 employees globally and plans to cut another 6,000 jobs as part of its restructuring plans and push for AI. Even amid this, on 10 October, TCS announced the launch of an AI experience zone and design studio in London, UK, as part of its restructuring efforts. The plan is to create 5,000 new jobs across Britain in the next three years.
Amazon.com: The tech giant plans to lay off close to 15 per cent of its workforce across departments such as human resources and consumer business, among others. Notably, CEO Andy Jassy has been vocal about AI adoption, stating that those who fail to adapt would be left behind. In June, Andy Jassy, in a company memo, wrote, “Those who embrace this change, become conversant in AI, help us build and improve our AI capabilities internally and deliver for customers, will be well-positioned to have high impact and help us reinvent the company.”
