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To prioritize its artificial intelligence-assisted medical research, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative — a philanthropy founded in Redwood City by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Dr. Priscilla Chan — will cut 71 employees in two months.
“This unprecedented work requires new kinds of expertise and capabilities,” a spokesperson with the initiative said. “We are making thoughtful adjustments to our team to ensure we are best positioned to drive this effort forward.”
The change will affect 38 Redwood City-based workers, most of whom are in tech, as well as 32 remote Redwood City workers, and one based in San Francisco, according to the California Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act dashboard.
“I was surprised by who they were laying off,” Amanda Anthony, the city’s economic development manager, said, noting that she thought the layoffs would be more focused on cutting positions dedicated to social work.
However, CZI’s Redwood City layoffs are focused on tech workers such as software engineers, AI engineers, and data scientists, which the city’s economic development director said reflects the philanthropy’s “reframing” of research priorities.
“Given who appears to be laid off,” Anthony said, adding the technical skills of these workers, “there could be a lot of soft landings.”
The organization — launched in 2015 to benefit education, community giving, and science — narrowed its focus in 2024 to science, specifically to an AI-powered biomedical research project called Biohub.
Biohub is intended to help scientists “around the world” study disease, why it happens, and how to correct it, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative says on its website.
Anthony said she hopes to see tech workers bounce back and find new work in Redwood City, which is a tech hub, and that “anytime you have a loss in headcount Downtown,” it’s “not what we want to see as a city.”
Even so, Anthony said there’s been “a lot” of leasing activity in the city lately, suggesting business in the area is on the up.
The structural changes within the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative include both staff reassignments and role reductions. The philanthropy notified employees of their release on Jan. 28, with separations occurring on March 30, according to the federally required unemployment notice letter sent to the city on Friday.
CZI is still looking to hire and grow the team, but in a different direction, with new job listings for research scientists, data scientists, and computational biologists based in New York. As of Monday, the organization had just four job listings based in Redwood City.
Despite the changes, the organization has taken steps to remain in Redwood City and continues to offer a free community space for nonprofits. Last February, it signed a 225,000-square-foot lease at IQHQ’s Elco Yards development, which is still under construction.
Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to include a statement from a spokesperson with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.
