The Pulse: Meta’s self-inflicted resignation-wave

Meta Platforms Inc. is offering $1 million-plus retainer equity grants to engineers who are leaving, but the incentives are failing to stem a resignation wave triggered by its own layoffs and forced reassignments. Separately, the Cursor team released Grok Bot, a generic AI harness for knowledge work, which one reviewer called the 'OpenClaw moment' for managed AI agents.

The Pulse: Meta’s self-inflicted resignation-wave The social media giant is offering $1M+ retainer equity grants to staff who are leaving: and even this is not effective. Also: is Grok Bot the “OpenClaw moment” for managed AI agents? The Pulse is a series covering events, insights, and trends within Big Tech and startups. Today, we cover: Meta can’t stop the “resignation-wave” it triggered. In what was predictable: Meta’s layoffs and forced reassignments pushed engineers not impacted by either to look for a new job. Meta is now offering large equity retainers to keep these folks, and it doesn’t seem to be working. Grok Bot: the “OpenClaw moment” for managed AI agents? The Cursor team built and released a generic AI harness that feels like the “Codex experience, but for knowledge work.” I tried it out, automated a lot of my daily workflows, and am a massive fan. More AI vendors will surely copy this harness. Apologies for this week’s The Pulse arriving a day later than usual – our family got a puppy this week – who is beyond adorable –, but has kept me up a few nights, indirectly delaying this week’s The Pulse. We’re getting into a rhythm, so things should be back to normal, looking ahead.