Meta is laying off 101 employees from its Puget Sound offices, according to the Washington State Employment Security Department (ESD). The layoffs are expected to take effect on December 22.
According to an employee separation email sent by Meta, the tech giant will lay off 23 people from the Seattle office, 48 people from the Bellevue site and four employees from the Redmond location, as well as 23 employees who work remotely. The list of employees includes two dozen employees working for Meta’s AI initiatives as software engineers, researchers and product managers.
In a separate development, Meta Platforms and Applied Materials disclosed plans to chop well over 600 combined Bay Area jobs, according to WARN letters sent to the state Employment Development Department.
READ: Meta lays off 600 employees from AI unit via a memo by CAIO Alexandr Wang (
“Affected employees who are offered and accept another position with the company before their anticipated separation date will not be separated from employment as a result of this action,” Janelle Gale, vice president of people at Meta stated in the WARN letter. The tech giant also announced it was going to cut at least 308 jobs in Menlo Park, according to the WARN notice.
This comes shortly after Meta announced layoffs in its AI unit, via a memo by Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang, who was hired in June as part of Meta’s $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI. This will impact Meta’s AI infrastructure units, Fundamental Artificial Intelligence Research (FAIR) unit and other product-related positions. These layoffs are an attempt by Meta to continue to trim the department and further cement Wang’s role in steering the company’s AI strategy.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg also appointed insider Vishal Shah to a key role, heading product management for AI products, the social media giant said on Monday. Shah was in charge of product management for Instagram at Meta for over six years, before becoming vice president of Metaverse.
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According to a memo obtained by the Financial Times, Meta’s head of AI product Nat Friedman announced that Shah was joining his team to lead product management. Shah will report to Friedman.
Friedman also added that his team will now focus on building flagship AI products such as the Meta AI app, while divisions that work on individual apps such as Instagram and WhatsApp will be able to “generate AI experiences” by building on top of the company’s models.
“We can’t just be an AI team, we need to be an AI company,” Friedman said in Monday’s memo. “Vishal will be critical in standing up this collaboration model, leading the overall integration strategy, and ensuring scaled success.”