Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced a significant step forward in the technology company’s artificial intelligence strategy, with the introduction of Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL) — a new division that will pursue what Zuckerberg describes as “superintelligence.” The key announcement came as the company’s stock hit an all-time high and it accelerated hiring in an intense AI talent war, CNBC reported on Monday.
Superintelligence, New Hires and Mark Zuckerberg’s Big Ambitions for Meta
In an internal memo issued in March and acquired by Bloomberg news, Zuckerberg had laid out his vision for Meta, stressing that given the rate at which the AI advancements have been accelerating, creation of superintelligence came into view. Expressing hope that the realisation of the concept would “be the dawn of a new era for humankind”, Zuckerberg had reaffirmed commitment, saying, “I am completely devoted to doing what it takes for Meta to pioneer the way.”
Reports suggest MSL will merge Meta’s current foundation model teams (such as the open-source Llama), its AI research organisation FAIR, and a new advanced research lab.
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Mark Zuckerberg Hails ex-CEO of Scale AI As ‘Most Impressive Founder’
At the helm is Alexandr Wang, ex-CEO of Scale AI, who is coming on board as Chief AI Officer after Meta reportedly bought a 49% stake in his firm for almost $15 billion. Zuckerberg hailed Wang as “the most impressive founder of his generation.”
Nat Friedman, ex-GitHub CEO and AI investor, will also co-lead MSL, with emphasis on applied research and AI products.
Mark Zuckerberg Announces List of Recruits From OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Anthropic
Zuckerberg announced a list of recent recruits from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Anthropic. They include Trapit Bansal, Jiahui Yu, Shuchao Bi, and Shengjia Zhao—all previously part of significant AI innovations like GPT-4o, ChatGPT, and Gemini models.
This hyper-aggressive recruitment move hasn’t flown under the radar. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman even accused Meta of paying $100 million sign-on bonuses to poach talent recently, reports say. But Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth retorted that Altman’s assertion was “dishonest.”
Adding to tensions, ex-OpenAI researcher Lucas Beyer affirmed on X that although he and two of his colleagues did switch to Meta, “We did not get 100M sign-on, that’s fake news.”
Stock Soars as Meta Doubles Down
Meanwhile, Wall Street reacted positively, with Meta stock peaking at $747.90 in intraday trading before settling at a record close of $738.09, pushing its valuation to a whopping $1.86 trillion, sixth globally.
Summing up the company’s momentum, Zuckerberg had reportedly said, “Meta is uniquely positioned to deliver superintelligence to the world. I’m excited to dive in and get to work.”
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