Meta hires four OpenAI researchers, expanding its AI team.

Meta hires four OpenAI researchers, expanding its AI team.

Meta has significantly expanded its AI team by hiring four prominent researchers from OpenAI, as reported by TechCrunch. The new recruits include Trapit Bansal, Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov, and Xiaohua Zhai. These hires are part of Meta's ongoing effort to build a competitive AI superintelligence unit, led by former Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang [1].

Trapit Bansal, a key contributor to OpenAI's first AI reasoning model, o1, will join the team to work on advanced AI reasoning models. His expertise is expected to enhance Meta's AI capabilities, allowing them to compete with industry leaders like OpenAI's o3 and DeepSeek's R1 [1].

Bansal's decision to join Meta underscores the success of CEO Mark Zuckerberg's aggressive recruitment strategy. In recent months, Zuckerberg has offered compensation packages as high as $100 million to attract top AI talent. Bansal's LinkedIn profile indicates he left OpenAI in June, and OpenAI spokesperson Kayla Wood confirmed his departure [1].

In addition to Bansal, Meta has also hired former Google DeepMind researcher Jack Rae and former machine learning leader at startup Sesame, Johan Schalkwyk. These new additions will bolster Meta's AI superintelligence team, which aims to develop AI agents for enterprise use under the leadership of Clara Shih, former Salesforce CEO of AI [1].

Meta's focus on AI reasoning models is critical as companies like OpenAI, Google, and DeepSeek have released high-performing models capable of tackling complex tasks by reasoning through problems. This approach, which involves additional computation time and resources, has led to improved performance in benchmarks and real-world applications [1].

While Meta has made significant strides in expanding its AI team, it has also explored acquiring AI startups known for their research capabilities. However, talks to acquire Safe Superintelligence, Thinking Machines Labs, and Perplexity have not progressed to a final agreement [1].

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently commented on Meta's recruitment efforts, stating, "None of our best people have decided to take him up on that." Despite this, Meta's aggressive hiring strategy has proven successful in attracting leading AI researchers [1].

Meta's AI superintelligence lab is expected to become a crucial internal group, similar to Google's DeepMind unit, and will play a significant role in powering products throughout the company. With these new hires, Meta aims to stay competitive in the rapidly evolving AI landscape [1].

References:
[1] https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/26/meta-hires-key-openai-researcher-to-work-on-ai-reasoning-models/
[2] https://www.business-standard.com/technology/tech-news/meta-hires-openai-trapit-bansal-for-ai-reasoning-superintelligence-125062601487_1.html