Meta to Hold Companywide AI Hackathon July 14-16 and Increase Team Offsite Budgets

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a companywide AI hackathon scheduled for July 14 to July 16 in an internal post to the company's roughly 70,000 employees on Friday. Zuckerberg described the event as a way for staff to build camaraderie at a time of widespread internal unrest. He also said budgets for team offsites would increase and that hot desking would be discontinued in some offices.

Ime Archibong, a vice president of product management at Meta, later posted that the hackathon would focus exclusively on AI Innovation. The announcement drew immediate pushback in internal forums. One employee wrote, “I’m not sure that this company supports a hackathon culture anymore,” in a comment that received more than 200 thumbs-up and heart reactions.

Another posted, “I’m literally preoccupied with keeping the lights on for my team. ” A third employee stated that hackathon efforts would not count toward performance evaluations. Several others said they lacked time because of increased workloads after the layoffs.

Two sources told Wired this is the first companywide hackathon at Meta since the 8,000-person layoff last month. Meta has long hosted internal hackathons. A Meta software engineering veteran responded in the forum that everyone is encouraged to participate.

Other employees countered that aggressive team goals and reduced staffing left little room for side projects. Meta declined to comment for this story.