Meta's AI Overhaul: Zuckerberg Bets $14.3 Billion on Superintelligence

Mark Zuckerberg has made a bold move in the AI race, betting that unlimited capital, top talent, and raw computing power will secure Meta's victory. The concept of AI "superintelligence" remains vague and theoretical, but Zuckerberg's recent actions have significantly altered the landscape for competitors, particularly smaller AI startups.

On Monday, Zuckerberg announced a major overhaul of Meta's AI operations. The company's various AI businesses and projects are now under the umbrella of a newly created organization called Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL). Alexandr Wang, the former CEO of data-labeling startup Scale AI, has been appointed as Meta’s first-ever Chief AI Officer. Zuckerberg expressed his commitment to leading the way in developing superintelligence, describing it as the beginning of a new era for humanity.

The new superintelligence lab encompasses Meta's foundations, product, and FAIR teams, as well as a new lab focused on developing the next generation of models. Nat Friedman, the former GitHub CEO and investor, has also joined Meta to partner with Wang in leading MSL. Friedman will head Meta’s work on AI products and applied research, bringing his expertise and understanding of Meta’s roadmap to the role.

Meta has been on an extraordinary hiring spree, bringing Wang on board as part of a $14.3 billion deal with Scale and recruiting top researchers from OpenAI with rumored $100 million compensation offers. Zuckerberg's internal memo named eleven top researchers who had joined Meta from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google. This aggressive hiring spree poses a significant threat to OpenAI, which has seen a loss of talent described as "theft" by its chief research officer Mark Chen. OpenAI has begun recalibrating compensation and crafting retention packages to stay competitive.

OpenAI, which has a longstanding partnership with Microsoft, has reportedly grown strained over the past year. As Meta seeks to move into OpenAI’s territory, the startup may need to find allies with deep pockets. OpenAI has recently begun using AI chips made by Google, signaling a growing bond between the two companies despite Google’s Gemini LLMs competing directly with OpenAI.

Meta’s AI gambit is backed by an internet advertising business that generates more than $40 billion every quarter, allowing the company to bankroll a no-holds-barred AI effort even if it doesn’t immediately deliver a profit. However, Meta’s latest moves carry risks. By appointing Wang, who is not a computer scientist, to lead all AI efforts, Meta may face internal resistance from its deep bench of AI scientists and PhDs, many of whom have already left the company.

Zuckerberg defended the appointment, noting that he and Wang had worked together for several years and describing Wang as "the most impressive founder of his generation." The concept of 'superintelligence' is not formally defined, but it generally refers to an intelligence that vastly surpasses human capabilities in virtually all domains. Superintelligence is perceived as going beyond artificial general intelligence (AGI), which refers to an AI system with human-level intelligence across a wide range of work-related tasks.

Zuckerberg claimed that Meta is "uniquely positioned to deliver superintelligence to the world," citing its efforts to build out data centers supporting more computing power than smaller labs. Meta is currently spending tens of billions on data centers and is raising more. Microsoft and Google are also investing tens of billions in capital expenditures to build out their AI infrastructure. OpenAI has said it intends to invest $500 billion with partners including Softbank in the coming years to build out its Stargate network of AI data centers.

If the race to superintelligence is a test of wills and capital, Zuckerberg seems to be betting that he can outlast the competition. Meta's aggressive moves and substantial investments signal a determined effort to lead the AI revolution, potentially reshaping the industry landscape and setting new standards for innovation and technological advancement.