Meta Approached Multiple AI Startups for Potential Acquisition

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is ramping up his artificial intelligence ambitions, aggressively pursuing top AI startups and talent in a move to strengthen the company’s position in the AI race. According to multiple reports, Meta has approached several high-profile AI firms for potential acquisitions.

Among the targeted startups were Perplexity AI, Runway, Thinking Machines (co-founded by OpenAI’s former CTO Mira Murati), and Safe Superintelligence (SSI), launched by OpenAI’s ex-chief scientist Ilya Sutskever alongside Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross, both of whom also founded VC fund NFDG.

In addition, Meta reportedly attempted to lure OpenAI employees with signing bonuses reaching $100 million. Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth acknowledged the intense competition, telling CNBC, “The market is setting a rate here for a level of talent which is really incredible and kind of unprecedented in my 20-year career as a technology executive.”

While most of the AI startups declined Zuckerberg’s overtures, he secured a significant win with Scale AI. Meta is investing $14.3 billion for a 49% stake in the data infrastructure firm, while hiring away its 28-year-old CEO, Alexandr Wang, to lead Meta’s superintelligence initiatives. The company will also partially acquire NFDG, bringing Friedman and Gross onboard under Wang’s leadership.

This bold recruitment drive comes as Zuckerberg reportedly expressed frustration over the development pace of Meta’s open-source large language model, Llama. Despite having AI luminary Yann LeCun as chief AI scientist and the Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) lab, Meta is now doubling down on talent and acquisitions to fast-track its AI roadmap.

The battle for elite AI talent has reached a fever pitch, with major players like OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Microsoft, and Anthropic competing for the same pool of experts. Meta’s renewed AI push aims to boost Llama’s capabilities and integrate next-gen AI features across its ecosystem, from Instagram recommendations to WhatsApp conversational assistants, while exploring AI agents for commerce and customer engagement.

As Meta reshapes its AI leadership, industry watchers are closely monitoring how Alexandr Wang will collaborate with Yann LeCun and steer Meta’s AI ambitions into the next era.

Source: Pymnts

Voice of Osiz

The AI talent war is reaching unprecedented heights, and this bold move from Meta proves just how critical elite expertise has become in shaping the future of superintelligence. We see this as a pivotal moment where strategic acquisitions will define the next decade of AI leadership. It’s a reminder for every tech-driven company to stay agile, invest in innovation, and never underestimate the power of human intelligence behind the algorithms.