layoffs

Over the course of my career in Big Tech, I’ve been lucky to work at several successful, fast-growing companies. At Meta and Airbnb, I helped scale research and design teams from 2012 to 2022, ultimately becoming Head of Design Studio at Airbnb.I loved building teams of talented people, but it…

Scale AI just laid off approximately 200 full-time employees (14% of its 1,400-person workforce) and 500 contractors, according to the company.This comes after Meta invested $14 billion into Scale AI last month as part of a blockbuster AI deal that included the hiring of Scale’s ex-CEO, Alexandr Wang, to lead its new…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Freddy Kristiansen, a 59-year-old former Principal Product Manager at Microsoft’s Denmark office who was laid off in May 2025. Business Insider has verified Kristiansen’s employment. The following has been edited for length and clarity.A couple of weeks ago, after 23 years…