US tech giant Meta will lay off roughly 600 employees within its artificial intelligence (AI) unit as part of its efforts to streamline operations and cut layers, CNBC reported Wednesday.

The layoffs were revealed in a memo from Alexandr Wang, the company's chief AI officer, who was brought on board in June as part of Meta's $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI.

The impact will be felt by employees in Meta's AI infrastructure divisions, Fundamental Artificial Intelligence Research unit and other product-related roles.

On Wednesday, Meta informed at least a few workers that they would be terminated on Nov. 21 and that they would be placed in a "non-working notice period" until then.

“During this time, your internal access will be removed, and you do not need to do any additional work for Meta,” said the message, according to the report. “You may use this time to search for another role at Meta.”

Additionally, the firm said it will give 16 weeks of severance pay plus an additional two weeks for each year of service that has been completed, "minus your notice period." (Anadolu Agency)