Meta Reorganizes GenAI Team to Accelerate Product Rollouts

Highlights

Meta split its AI team into a product-focused group and an AGI foundations unit to accelerate development and streamline responsibilities.

Meta plans to spend $64 billion to $72 billion in capex this year mainly to expand data centers and deploy 1.3 million GPUs.

Talent retention is a concern, as Meta’s Llama team is seeing key researchers leave for rivals like Mistral.

Meta is reorganizing its generative artificial intelligence team to accelerate rollouts of products and features as the AI race intensifies.

    Get the Full Story

    Complete the form to unlock this article and enjoy unlimited free access to all PYMNTS content — no additional logins required.

    yesSubscribe to our daily newsletter, PYMNTS Today.

    By completing this form, you agree to receive marketing communications from PYMNTS and to the sharing of your information with our sponsor, if applicable, in accordance with our Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions.

    Meta is splitting the team into two groups, according to reports by Axios and The Information. One group will be focused on products and led by Vice President of Product Connor Hayes. The other group will be an AGI Foundations unit co-led by Head of GenAI Ahmad Al-Dahle and Vice President of GenAI Amir Frenkel.

    The reorganization, detailed in an internal memo from Chief Product Officer Chris Cox, aims to streamline operations and clarify roles, thereby enhancing Meta’s competitive edge in the rapidly evolving AI industry, per the reports.

    The products team will oversee practical applications and roll out of AI features, such as the Meta AI assistant, Meta’s AI Studio, and AI capabilities in Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, the reports said. The AGI team will handle Meta’s large language model family, Llama, and initiatives to improve reasoning, multimedia and voice capabilities.

    What won’t be touched is Meta’s FAIR, or Fundamental AI Research, group, which is led by Turing award winner Yann LeCun, who serves as the chief AI scientist of Meta, Axios reported. One specific multimedia team will join the AGI team.

    No one was fired as part of the reorganization, the report said.

    In January, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told employees that the company would cut about 5% of staff who were considered low performers. As a result, Meta was expected to terminate as many as 3,600 employees throughout February.

    A week ago, Zuckerberg targeted teams with 150 employees or more, asking leaders to tag 15% to 20% as low performers, Business Insider reported. That was up from 12% to 15% previously.

    Meta’s structural change came as the company raised its investment in AI infrastructure. In April, the company raised its 2025 capital expenditure forecast to between $64 billion and $72 billion, up from the previous range of $60 billion to $65 billion.

    This increase is primarily to support AI development and the expansion of data centers. Meta plans to deploy approximately 1.3 million GPUs by the end of 2025 to power its AI initiatives.

    Meanwhile, Meta faces challenges in retaining top AI talent. The Llama AI team has experienced a talent drain, with several researchers joining rival companies like French startup Mistral, according to a separate Business Insider report.

    For all PYMNTS AI coverage, subscribe to the daily AI Newsletter.

    Read more: