Initially, there was poaching, followed by restructuring and downsizing, and now Meta has enforced a hiring freeze for its AI research group.

A new article from the Wall Street Journal, building on an earlier piece this week from The New York Times, has added fresh speculation regarding Meta’s rapid changes in its AI research initiatives.

As per the Times article released on Tuesday, Meta is revamping its recently established Superintelligence Lab by splitting it into four smaller units. These units will allegedly concentrate on AI research, advancing superintelligence (a form of AI that surpasses human intelligence), AI products, and AI infrastructure such as data centers, according to the Times.

The Times article indicated that besides reorganizing its AI lab, Meta is reducing the overall size of the team, which is reportedly in the thousands. This aligns with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s recent belief that superintelligence research should be carried out by smaller teams. “You really want the smallest group that can hold the whole thing in their head,” Zuckerberg stated during Meta’s latest earnings call. This reflects how his views on AI development have transformed over the past year.

On Thursday, Meta confirmed to the Journal that it has halted hiring for its AI team.

In just the last two months, there have been significant shifts at Meta. Zuckerberg, dissatisfied with the Llama 4 launch, initiated an aggressive recruitment drive, during which he reportedly personally contacted leading AI researchers and executives for his superintelligence team. Meta recruited over 50 AI specialists from rival firms like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google, tempting them with signing bonuses and salaries totaling millions of dollars. This included bringing in former Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang to head its superintelligence research team, referred to internally as “TBD lab.”

These rapid changes may indicate the kind of prompt action stemming from a clear strategy or worries about a potential bubble. Meta informed the Journal that the hiring freeze was due to “bringing people on board and undertaking yearly budgeting and planning exercises.” The abrupt hiring of numerous AI researchers followed by an equally sudden freeze could suggest that Meta feels it has the right team in place after spending what appeared to be a substantial hiring budget.

Nevertheless, some investors and analysts caution against a potential AI bubble following this week’s market fluctuations, during which major U.S. tech stocks fell several points. The selloff occurred after an MIT study revealed that 95 percent of companies implementing AI reported no return on investment.