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OpenAI loses 3 top executives as it cuts back on ‘side quests’

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OpenAI lost three top executives on Friday.

Kevin Weil, who headed OpenAI’s scientific research efforts after serving as chief product officer, posted on LinkedIn that his team, OpenAI for Science, is being decentralized into other research teams and that he is leaving the company.

Bill Peebles, who headed OpenAI’s AI video app Sora, also announced his departure. Although Peebles didn’t explain why in his post, OpenAI shut down Sora last month due to cost and compute constraints.

“I’m proud of all the sleepless nights before and after the launch this team endured in order to deploy the technology in a responsible way and help steer societal norms,” Peebles wrote.

An OpenAI spokesperson said the company is unifying its business and product strategy. Prism, an AI workplace for scientists that Weil oversaw, is moving to Codex, OpenAI’s AI developer assistant, which is expanding beyond coding.

Srinivas Narayanan, OpenAI’s chief technology officer for its B2B applications, is also leaving to spend more time with his family, he wrote on LinkedIn. Narayanan’s departure is unrelated to the other two, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The shakeup comes as OpenAI narrows its focus by cutting back on “side quests” and doubling down on selling to businesses. It’s a move spearheaded by its CEO of applications, Fidji Simo, to make the company profitable as it moves towards an IPO. Simo is on medical leave for several weeks.

OpenAI has been losing some of its thunder to Anthropic, as its latest releases like Claude Code have been gaining traction with businesses and sparking fears of a ‘SaaS-pocalypse.’

Anthropic has seen funding offers valuing it at up to $800 billion, Business Insider reported, more than twice its most recent valuation in February. OpenAI was valued at $852 billion in a funding round it announced last month.

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Salesforce made a new round of job cuts. These teams were affected.

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  • Salesforce cut part of its workforce earlier this month.
  • Staff in teams across marketing, product, and data were let go.
  • The cut involved fewer than 1,000 roles, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Salesforce made cuts to its workforce at the beginning of this month.

The cut involved fewer than 1,000 roles, according to a person familiar with the matter.

At least nine employees posted on LinkedIn that their roles had been eliminated. Affected roles included marketing, product management, data analytics, and Salesforce’s Agentforce AI product, according to LinkedIn posts and profiles, as well as two employees who spoke to Business Insider.

The layoffs also come amid an executive shake-up at Salesforce, in which the company appointed six new leaders to replace five high-profile leaders who have announced departures since December.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said in August that the company used AI agents to reduce its support staff from 9,000 to 5,000.

Have a tip? Contact Ashley Stewart via email at astewart@businessinsider.com or Signal at +1-425-344-8242. Contact Charles Rollet via email at crollet@businessinsider.com or on Signal at charlesrollet.12 or +1-628-282-2811. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here’s our guide to sharing information securely.




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Some Amazon employees get ‘Project Dawn’ calendar invitation discussing upcoming job cuts

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Some Amazon employees got a worrying calendar invitation on Tuesday, stoking more concern about job cuts that are expected in coming days.

The invitation addressed impending job cuts and mentioned “Project Dawn,” an initiative to improve efficiency at Amazon, according to a copy obtained by Business Insider.

The invitation had the subject line “Send Project Dawn email” and was written by Colleen Aubrey, senior vice president of AWS Solutions, although it appears to have been sent by an assistant.

The invitation was for a calendar event at 5 a.m. Pacific time on Wednesday, but it was canceled shortly after it was sent. Some employees noticed it and shared the information with Business Insider.

“This is a continuation of the work we’ve been doing for more than a year to strengthen the company by reducing layers, increasing ownership, and removing bureaucracy, so that we can move faster for customers,” the accompanying message read. “The notifications to impacted colleagues in our organization who are based in the US, Canada, and Costa Rica have now been completed.”

“Changes like this are hard on everyone,” Aubrey’s message continued. “These decisions are difficult and are made thoughtfully as we position our organization and AWS for future success.”

Amazon plans to cut thousands of corporate roles in coming days, Business Insider previously reported. The reductions would mark the company’s second round of mass layoffs since October, when it eliminated roughly 14,000 jobs. An Amazon spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

After the calendar invitation landed, confusion spread across an internal Slack channel with more than 36,000 Amazon employees, according to messages viewed by Business Insider. Staff questioned whether the message had been intended for Aubrey’s entire organization or only for those whose roles were being eliminated.

“Am I impacted or sent by mistake to all?” one employee wrote.

Others saw the email as confirmation that the expected layoffs were imminent.

“Well, if you needed solid proof that tomorrow is legit, the project dawn email is it,” one person wrote. “Looks like they wanted to use AI to send an email tomorrow and instead it sent a calendar invite today.”

It remains unclear which teams will be affected by the cuts. Some Amazon employees who spoke to Business Insider theorized that staff who received the accidental invitation may not be among those getting cut.

“People are speculating you’re safe if invited,” one employee said.

Have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at ekim@businessinsider.com or Signal, Telegram, or WhatsApp at 650-942-3061. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here’s our guide to sharing information securely.

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The list of companies laying off staff this year includes Citi and Angi, with dozens of others like Meta warning of job cuts

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The year 2026 is just getting started, and layoffs are already underway.

Companies, including Angi, the company formerly known as Angie’s List, and the popular web tool Tailwind, have cut staff, citing the impact of artificial intelligence among the reasons for the layoffs.

More than 100 other companies, from Amazon to Nike to Verizon, have filed legally mandated WARN notices about job cuts to come in 2026, according to WARN Tracker. Some of the cuts are part of previously announced reductions.

This year’s cuts follow three years of significant workforce reductions across a broad range of industries, including tech, media, finance, and retail.

The moves come as artificial intelligence, public policy, and broader economic conditions present sweeping changes to the business landscape.

A World Economic Forum survey last year found that some 41% of companies worldwide expected to reduce their workforces in the next five years because of the rise of artificial intelligence. The survey also found that jobs in big data, fintech, and AI are expected to double by 2030.

Last year, Business Insider tracked layoffs at around 65 major companies, such as Amazon, Meta, Paramount, and Starbucks. In 2026, we’ll continue to track additional job cuts based on company announcements, WARN notices, and our own reporting.

Here are the companies with job cuts underway in 2026, listed in alphabetical order.

Angi is cutting 350 jobs

Angi, a contractor listing platform, was previously known as Angie’s List.

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Angi, the popular contractor listing site once known as Angie’s List, said in January that it was cutting around 350 jobs “to reduce operating expenses and optimize the organizational structure in support of long-term growth.” The company also said it’s making the cuts “in light of AI-driven efficiency improvements.”

In a January 7 SEC filing, Angi said that the cuts would save between $70 million and $80 million in annual spending. The layoffs will cost the company between $22 million and $30 million, according to the filing.

Citi’s job cuts continue this year


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Citibank said it will continue to cut jobs in 2026.

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Citi will cut more jobs this year as part of its plan to reduce its workforce by 10%, or 20,000 employees.

In a statement on January 13, the bank said that it will continue to reduce head count in 2026.

“These changes reflect adjustments we’re making to ensure our staffing levels, locations and expertise align with current business needs,” a spokesperson for Citi said.

The plan was detailed in the company’s January 2024 earnings report and could save the bank as much as $2.5 billion.

Meta is preparing for layoffs


The Meta Quest 3s, the standalone virtual reality headset developed by Reality Labs, a subdivision of the American company Meta Platforms, is exhibited at the Qualcomm pavilion during the Mobile World Congress 2025 in Barcelona, Spain, on March 5, 2025. (Photo by Joan Cros/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Meta is preparing to slash jobs within its Reality Labs division as the branch’s cash burn continues.

Joan Cros/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Meta is preparing to slash jobs within its Reality Labs division, the unit responsible for Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse ambitions, three people familiar with the matter told Business Insider.

Two employees said that teams working on virtual reality headsets and Horizon Worlds, the company’s VR social network, will be disproportionately affected. The New York Times reported that roughly 10% to 15% of the division’s 15,000 employees are expected to be laid off, with announcements coming as soon as this week.

The cuts coincide with a high-stakes division-wide meeting scheduled for Wednesday. Meta’s CTO and Reality Labs chief Andrew Bosworth described the upcoming gathering as the “most important” of the year and urged employees to attend in person.

Tailwind cut 3 of its 4 engineers

Tailwind, a popular web tool, said it cut three of its four engineers in January, citing an AI-driven decline in revenue.

“75% of the people on our engineering team lost their jobs here yesterday because of the brutal impact AI has had on our business,” CEO Adam Wathan wrote in a GitHub comment on January 6 that made waves in the tech community.

Is your company conducting layoffs? Got a tip?


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Have a tip about company layoffs? Contact Business Insider reporter Dominick Reuter using a personal email address, a non-work WiFi network, and a non-work device; here’s our guide to sharing information securely.




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BI readers told us their grocery bills keep going up. That’s bad news for more rate cuts.

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Sometimes you have to take matters into your own hands.

The government shutdown ended a while ago, but there’s been at least one lingering effect: a lack of inflation data.

The last CPI report was for September and released way back on October 24. November’s inflation report — sorry October, we’ll catch you next year — was scheduled to drop December 10, but got bumped to December 18.

But who wants to wait another two-plus weeks?

Business Insider took matters into its own hands, surveying readers about how prices have changed. We heard from roughly 200 of you, and BI’s Madison Hoff has the results, along with some personal anecdotes from readers about what they are seeing.

Unfortunately, one area readers feel prices keep climbing is something they can’t skip: Food. Whether it’s groceries (90%) or dining out (87%), the vast majority said those prices have gone up.

The data shows the affordability issue that many Americans say they’re facing.

Despite a stock market that continues to rise, people are finding themselves stretching their budgets. And unlike luxury items that one can hold off on purchasing, groceries are a day-to-day expense that Americans continue to feel the pain of.

“It’s so frustrating that people like us who are financially responsible, who are doing everything right, are still just feeling like we’re stretched every step of the way,” one reader told Madison.

That puts the Fed in an interesting position when it comes to rate cuts.

Central bankers will convene next week for their final meeting of the year. As always, Jerome Powell and co. aim to strike a balance between keeping inflation in check and maintaining a robust job market.

While our survey is far from scientific, the main takeaway is clear: most people feel prices keep going up. If you’re looking to address those concerns, cutting interest rates risks pushing inflation (and prices) even higher.

On the other hand, the job market remains largely frozen. And the best way to kickstart things on that front would be to continue easing up the policy.

So what will the Fed do? Wall Street seems bullish on another cut, with 87.6% of interest-rate traders betting on one next week, according to CME FedWatch.




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