Social media giant Meta Platforms (META) has paused hiring in its artificial intelligence (AI) division after a massive spending spree in recent months to acquire more than 50 researchers and engineers. According to a Wall Street Journal report, the hiring freeze went into effect last week amid a broader restructuring of the group.
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Meta Freezes AI Hiring
Sources told the Wall Street Journal that there could be some exceptions to the pause on external hires, but permission of Meta Platforms’ chief AI officer, Alexandr Wang, would be required. Interestingly, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg hired Scale AI co-founder Wang by offering $14 billion for a stake in his company. Meanwhile, the hiring freeze also prevents current employees from shifting across teams within the AI division.
A Meta spokesperson confirmed the hiring pause, calling it “basic organizational planning: creating a solid structure for our new superintelligence efforts after bringing people on board and undertaking yearly budgeting and planning exercises.”
Meta’s aggressive AI hiring, including poaching top talent from other AI companies like OpenAI, Alphabet’s (GOOGL) Google, iPhone maker Apple (AAPL), and Anthropic, has been under intense scrutiny. Notably, analysts have raised concerns due to pay packages worth nine figures and the risk to shareholder returns from the growing stock-based compensation costs.
Meanwhile, the company recently restructured its AI division into four teams. This classification includes a team focused on building superintelligence systems, an AI products division, an infrastructure division, and a division dedicated to longer-term projects and exploration.
Is META a Good Stock to Buy?
Despite macro uncertainties and concerns about high spending, Wall Street remains bullish on Meta Platforms’ long-term growth potential. The stock scores a Strong Buy consensus rating based on 42 Buys and five Holds. The average META stock price target of $872.68 indicates about 17% upside potential from current levels. META stock has risen 28% year-to-date.
