Meta Platforms has paused hiring in its artificial intelligence division, ending months of aggressive recruitment that saw it scoop up more than 50 researchers and engineers from rivals including OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Apple, xAI, and Anthropic, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.

The hiring freeze, which went into effect last week, is part of a broader restructuring of the AI group. The move also restricts current employees from transferring between teams within the division, and the company did not specify how long the pause will last. Exceptions to external hiring may be possible but would require approval from Meta’s newly installed chief AI officer, Alexandr Wang.

The pause on hiring top AI talent also coincides with turbulence in the tech-heavy stock market. The Nasdaq 100 has fallen almost 2% this week, led by losses in Nvidia, Microsoft, and Meta, while AI darling Palantir has tumbled more than 11% so far. Late last week, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman compared the current AI frenzy to the 1990s dot-com bubble, when internet company valuations spiked dramatically before collapsing.

A Meta spokesperson confirmed the 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.”

The restructuring divides Meta’s AI operations into four units: TBD Lab (focused on machine superintelligence), an AI products team, an infrastructure team, and Fundamental AI Research, which explores longer-term projects. Together, they form “Meta Superintelligence Labs,” reflecting CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s ambition to build systems that can outperform humans in cognitive tasks.

Meta’s hiring binge accelerated earlier this year after the disappointing release of its latest Llama large language models, which triggered a shake-up of its AGI Foundations team, as the company’s LLMs lagged behind ChatGPT and Claude. In April, Zuckerberg personally began approaching researchers at OpenAI and Google DeepMind, sending direct emails and WhatsApp messages that in some cases turned into offers worth as much as $100 million.

The most high-profile addition came when Meta secured Scale AI co-founder Wang by acquiring a 49% stake in his company for $14.3 billion. Wang now oversees the company’s AI strategy and leads efforts to advance the Llama series of open-source large language models. Meta also brought in former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman and Safe Superintelligence co-founder Daniel Gross as part of the expansion push.

As of mid-August, Meta had hired more than 20 researchers from OpenAI, at least 13 from Google, and several from Apple, xAI, and Anthropic. But the lavish spending has raised red flags among investors. Analysts at Morgan Stanley warned that soaring stock-based compensation costs at Meta and Google could weigh on shareholder returns, cautioning that “such spending has the potential to drive AI breakthroughs with massive value creation or could dilute shareholder value without any clear innovation gains.”

On its Q2 earnings call, Meta said full-year capital expenditures are projected to reach between $66 billion and $72 billion, up from an earlier $64–72 billion range. The company also noted that compensation tied to AI hiring will be “the second-largest driver of growth,” contributing to a 2026 expense growth rate above that of 2025.

Still, the heavy spending on AI talent leaves uncertainty over how quickly the company’s AI models can mature, as it races to catch up with key players in the LLM market.