Meta Platforms reportedly trimmed approximately 600 jobs from its Meta Superintelligence Labs division as part of a plan to accelerate progress in the highly competitive race to advance AI technologies.

Bloomberg reported AI chief Alexandr Wang notified employees yesterday about the job cuts in an internal memo. Axios noted Meta will continue to hire new employees for its TBD Lab team which is under the umbrella of Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL).

The cuts are across the social media giant’s Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) team and product-related AI and AI infrastructure units, added Axios.

Wang stated in his memo reducing the team’s size will allow for faster decision-making and give remaining employees greater responsibility and influence, according to both news agencies.

Bloomberg explained the TBD Lab team is home to recently hired, highly-paid AI staff members, some of whom Meta poached from rival companies such as OpenAI.

Meta is encouraging those laid off to apply for other roles within the company and has indicated that hiring for its AI teams will continue, according to Bloomberg.

In August, the company carved up its MSL division into four separate teams as part of a plan to leverage recent hires from competing players. The move marked Meta’s fourth AI restructuring over the past six months.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated in July the company planned to invest hundreds of billions of dollars on AI compute infrastructure, which includes building colossal data centre clusters.

In April, Meta increased its projected capital expenditure for 2025 to $64 billion to $72 billion after previously stating in January it planned capex of $60 billion to $65 billion.