Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Announces 70 Job Cuts as Part of Restructuring

As part of its massive reorganisation, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative laid off several employees at the beginning of 2026. Layoffs were made in order to redirect resources to biomedical research that makes use of artificial intelligence. Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Dr Priscilla Chan established the charitable foundation CZI. A representative from CZI confirmed to a media house that the group is laying off 70 people, or around 8% of its staff. The majority of the layoffs occurred in San Mateo, California's Redwood City, headquarters.

Reasons for the Layoff

Jobs have been cut in order to broaden its biomedical and scientific focus. Hence, CZI wants to deviate from its initial focus areas of education, criminal justice reform, housing, and community development. Therefore, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative requires employees with expertise in its new coverage areas. The organisation had to lay off some people since they needed more research-heavy expertise to fit the new objective, even though others could be transferred to other teams. Employees are eligible for a severance package that includes 16 weeks of base pay, health insurance, and a $10,000 stipend in addition to a 60-day notice period.

According to Zuckerberg and Chan, the decision to lay off workers was a part of a larger effort to funnel resources into Biohub. It is an expanding network of biomedical research institutes with the stated goal of curing or preventing all diseases. As of now, it functions as an interconnected system of nonprofit research institutes that collaborate with schools such as Columbia, Northwestern, UC Berkeley, Stanford, and UC San Francisco.

With the goal of curing, preventing, or managing all diseases, Biohub is pushing the boundaries of biomedical research, engineering, and AI. Scientists, data scientists, computational biologists, and other similar positions will make up the bulk of CZI's future hiring and expansion plans.

CZI Also Opting for AI

Meta, Zuckerberg's digital business valued at $1.81 trillion, and CZI are both fully committed to AI-focused research and its outcomes. His philanthropic and commercial endeavours are now entirely devoted to artificial intelligence. Meta plans to invest $115–135 billion on developing "superintelligent" agents to meet users' demands in feeds, advertisements, and commerce. Like other "frontier AI" and "frontier biology" centres, CZI's Biohub employs large-scale models for things like disease prediction, immunological reprogramming, and virtual cells. For his work at Meta and CZI, Zuckerberg has positioned 2026 as the year of AI's revolutionary change.