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Why Meta has paused hiring for its AI division
21 Aug 2025

Meta has paused hiring for its artificial intelligence (AI) division after offering pay packages with a value of up to $100 million to top talent, the Wall Street Journal has reported.

The move comes after the company successfully recruited over 50 AI researchers and engineers as part of its efforts to strengthen its position in the sector.

The hiring freeze, which started last week, also prevents employees from internal transfers.

Meta calls it 'organizational planning'
Clarification

Responding to the news of the hiring freeze, a Meta spokesperson called it "organizational planning."

They said, "All that's happening here is some basic organizational planning: creating a solid structure for our new superintelligence efforts after bringing people on board and undertaking yearly budgeting and planning exercises."

The spokesperson didn't specify how long this pause would last.

Meta's AI operations now have 4 teams
Restructuring

The latest reorganization at Meta has divided its AI operations into four teams.

These are TBD Lab, which focuses on superintelligence, another that builds AI-powered products, a third that develops the underlying infrastructure to support them, and Fundamental AI Research.

The last one is focused on long-term exploratory projects and was largely unaffected by the shake-up.

AGI Foundations was responsible for developing Llama
Team dissolution

Before the restructuring, Meta's AGI Foundations was responsible for developing the latest versions of its large language model, Llama.

However, after failing to meet internal expectations, the team was eventually dissolved.

This decision reflects a strategic move by the company to ensure that all teams contribute effectively toward its goals.

Zuckerberg personally reached out to potential candidates
Recruitment tactics

Following the launch of the Llama model, Mark Zuckerberg became more interested in hiring AI talent.

He contacted potential candidates through email and WhatsApp messages.

Meta not only offered nine-figure pay packages but also employed reverse acquisition techniques to recruit top talent from companies like Google, Apple, and OpenAI.