Meta has confirmed layoffs affecting its AI operations in Bellevue, Seattle, and Redmond — trimming more than a hundred jobs as part of a broader restructuring.
The move, revealed in recent filings in Washington state, might look like another corporate headline in a long list of tech job cuts, but it’s actually a signal that something deeper is shifting inside the AI gold rush.
I spoke with a few engineers around the area, and the vibe is mixed. Some see it as a clean-up — a move to focus resources on products that actually make money. Others are shaken.
After all, AI has been sold as the future, the unstoppable wave. So when the very companies shouting that message start trimming their AI teams, you can’t help but ask: what’s really going on?
Meta’s layoffs follow a larger pattern sweeping through Silicon Valley this fall. Just last week, reports surfaced that Meta is cutting around 600 roles in its Superintelligence Labs unit, the division building advanced AI systems and infrastructure.
It’s the same story told a little differently — a shift from research to revenue, from broad ambition to specific execution. One insider called it “streamlining for survival.”
You can see the same energy elsewhere. The Verge described the restructuring as part of Meta’s effort to align its AI development with the products users actually touch — think smarter search, AI assistants across apps, and generative features for content creators.
That makes sense from a business angle. But from the people side? It’s rough. Many of these are researchers who’ve spent years in long-term innovation, suddenly told their projects don’t fit the new roadmap.
And let’s not forget: this isn’t just about Meta. The Washington Post recently reported that multiple tech giants are tightening AI budgets even as they race to ship new features.
It’s a strange paradox — companies are both obsessed with AI and cautious about overspending on it. In short, they want to win the AI race, but without bleeding cash in the process.
The timing of Meta’s move is interesting too. Only a few months ago, it poured billions into infrastructure and partnerships, including work with Scale AI, which itself has faced workforce cuts after Meta’s investment.
It’s as if the entire AI supply chain is being forced to grow up fast — from wild experimentation to hard accountability.
From where I’m sitting, this feels like the inevitable hangover after the hype. AI is still the biggest thing in tech, but the industry’s learning that scale without discipline burns fast.
Meta isn’t backing off its AI ambitions; it’s just realizing that not every experiment deserves infinite funding. There’s something both practical and unsettling about that.
As for the people in those Bellevue and Redmond offices, the layoffs sting.
Seattle’s tech scene has seen this story play out too many times — grand innovation promises followed by budget cuts when the returns aren’t instant. But there’s a quiet resilience here too.
The AI talent being let go today won’t stay idle for long. Some will join startups, some will build new ones, and a few will probably create the very tools Meta will want to buy back a few years from now.
It’s a strange cycle — creation, contraction, and creation again. For Meta, this is a “reset.”
For everyone else watching, it’s a reminder: in the AI era, even the smartest machines can’t shield humans from the ups and downs of progress.
