Meta Stock Falls 1.66% to 8th in U.S. Trading Volume Amid Talent War

On August 5, 2025, Meta (META) closed with a 1.66% decline, trading a volume of $8.96 billion—a 26.36% drop from the prior day. The stock ranked eighth in trading activity among U.S. equities, reflecting heightened market scrutiny amid strategic developments.

Meta’s aggressive recruitment efforts have drawn attention as CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly sought to acquire Mira Murati’s startup, Thinking Machines Lab, through a $1 billion offer. After the offer was rejected, the company intensified efforts to recruit key personnel, including Andrew Tulloch, a co-founder of the startup. Tulloch was extended a potential $1.5 billion compensation package tied to Meta’s stock performance but also declined. The move underscores Meta’s broader strategy to attract talent from OpenAI and affiliated ventures, with over 100 outreach attempts and at least 10 hires reported. A Meta spokesperson dismissed the specifics as “inaccurate and ridiculous,” emphasizing that compensation structures depend on stock price dynamics.

Andrew Tulloch, a former Meta employee and co-creator of PyTorch, rejoined the AI research space in 2023 after a decade at the company. His expertise in machine learning systems and contributions to Meta’s AI infrastructure position him as a strategic asset. Despite past unsuccessful recruitment attempts by OpenAI in 2016, Tulloch’s return to the startup ecosystem highlights evolving talent dynamics in the AI sector.

The strategy of purchasing the top 500 stocks by daily trading volume and holding them for one day delivered a 166.71% return from 2022 to the present, outperforming the benchmark return of 29.18% by 137.53%. This underscores the role of liquidity concentration in short-term stock performance, particularly in volatile markets.