Meta implements hiring freeze after splitting up its AI superintelligence team

First came poaching, then restructuring and downsizing, now Meta has implemented a hiring freeze for its AI research team.

A new report from the Wall Street Journal, following an earlier report this week from The New York Times, added new speculation about Meta's whiplash changes to its AI research efforts.

According to the Times report on Tuesday, Meta is overhauling its newly formed Superintelligence Lab, by breaking it up into four smaller teams. The teams will reportedly focus on AI research, developing superintelligence (a form of AI more advanced than human intelligence), AI products, and AI infrastructure such as data centers, the Times said.

The Times report said that in addition to restructuring its AI lab, Meta is downsizing the overall team, which is reportedly in the thousands. This lines up with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's newfound belief that superintelligence research should be done in small teams. "You really want the smallest group that can hold the whole thing in their head," said Zuckerberg on Meta's latest earnings call. This was in response to how his perspective on developing AI has changed in the past 12 months.

On Thursday, Meta confirmed to the Journal that it has paused hiring for its AI team.

Just in the past two months, things have changed drastically at Meta. Zuckerberg, disappointed by the Llama 4 launch, kickstarted an aggressive recruiting effort, where he reportedly personally reached out to top AI researchers and executives for his superintelligence team. Meta poached more than 50 AI professionals from its competitors like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google, enticing them with signing bonuses and salaries worth millions of dollars. That included recruiting former Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang to lead its superintelligence research team, internally dubbed "TBD lab."

The fast-paced changes could signify the kind of swift action that comes from clarity of direction or concerns of a looming bubble. Meta told the Journal that the hiring freeze was a result of "bringing people on board and undertaking yearly budgeting and planning exercises." The sudden hiring of dozens of AI researchers and equally sudden freeze could mean Meta has the right team assembled after spending its seemingly massive hiring budget.

However, some investors and analysts warn of a looming AI bubble after this week's market volatility, where major U.S. tech stocks dropped several points. The selloff came after an MIT study found 95 percent of companies implementing AI found no returns on investment.