Meta Platforms (META) is laying off 600 employees from its artificial intelligence (A.I.) business unit.
In announcing the layoffs, the mega-cap technology company said that it is looking to reduce layers of staff and operate more efficiently.
Workers across Meta’s A.I. infrastructure unit, Fundamental Artificial Intelligence Research unit (FAIR), and other product-related positions will be impacted by the job cuts.
Within Meta, the A.I. unit was considered to be bloated, with teams often vying for computer resources, according to the company.
The new round of layoffs is an attempt by Meta to trim it’s A.I. workforce, which is being consolidated under the Meta Superintelligence Labs department.
Meta has been aggressively overhauling it’s A.I. approach as it scrambles to keep pace with rivals such as OpenAI and Google parent company Alphabet (GOOGL).
Following the new round of job cuts, Meta Platforms’ Superintelligence Labs’ workforce will stand at just under 3,000 people, said the company.
Meta plans to spend as much as $72 billion U.S. on A.I. infrastructure this year.
The company recently announced that it will spend $27 billion U.S. to develop a massive data centre in rural Louisiana.
META stock has risen 22% this year to trade at $733.41 U.S. per share.
