Zuckerberg Announces Meta Superintelligence Labs with Major AI Talent

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta Platforms, has announced the formation of Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL), a new unit dedicated to advancing artificial intelligence. This move comes as Meta intensifies its efforts to compete with industry giants like OpenAI and Google. The new lab will be led by some of the company’s most recent high-profile hires, including Alexandr Wang, former CEO of Scale AI, and Nat Friedman, former CEO of GitHub.

Zuckerberg detailed the new initiative in an internal memo, stating, “As the pace of AI progress accelerates, developing superintelligence is coming into sight. I believe this will be the beginning of a new era for humanity, and I am fully committed to doing what it takes for Meta to lead the way.”

The MSL will house Meta’s various teams working on foundation models such as the open-source Llama software, products, and Fundamental Artificial Intelligence Research (FAIR) projects. Alexandr Wang will serve as Chief AI Officer, leading MSL, while Nat Friedman will head the work on AI products and applied research.

Zuckerberg’s announcement follows a series of strategic hires aimed at bolstering Meta’s AI capabilities. Earlier in June, the company secured Wang and several of his colleagues as part of a $14.3 billion investment into Scale AI. Meta also hired Friedman and his business partner, Daniel Gross, who was CEO of Safe Superintelligence, an AI startup created by OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever.

The talent influx at Meta is part of a broader AI hiring blitz that has seen the company face fierce competition from rivals. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently revealed that Meta was recruiting AI researchers from his company, offering signing bonuses as high as $100 million. Meta’s technology chief, Andrew Bosworth, noted that the market is setting unprecedented rates for top AI talent.

In his memo, Zuckerberg highlighted several other key hires joining MSL, including:

• Trapit Bansal, co-creator of o-series models at OpenAI
• Shuchao Bi, co-creator of GPT-4o voice mode at OpenAI
• Huiwen Chang, co-creator of GPT-4o’s image generation at Google Research
• Ji Lin, a key contributor to multiple GPT models at OpenAI
• Joel Pobar, inference expert at Anthropic
• Jack Rae, tech lead for Gemini and reasoning at DeepMind
• Hongyu Ren, co-creator of multiple GPT models at OpenAI
• Johan Schalkwyk, former Google Fellow and technical lead for Maya
• Pei Sun, post-training expert at Google DeepMind
• Jiahui Yu, co-creator of multiple GPT models at OpenAI
• Shengjia Zhao, co-creator of ChatGPT and GPT models at OpenAI

Zuckerberg expressed excitement about the progress planned for Llama 4.1 and 4.2, models that power Meta AI and are used by over 1 billion monthly active users across the company’s apps. He also outlined plans to start research on the next generation of models, aiming to reach the frontier in the next year.

Meta’s unique position, with a strong business foundation and deep experience in product development, positions the company to deliver on the promise of personal superintelligence for everyone, according to Zuckerberg. The company’s commitment to building out these models and advancing AI technology is underscored by the new influx of talent and parallel approach to model development.

Zuckerberg concluded, “We have even more great people at all levels joining this effort in the coming weeks, so stay tuned. I’m excited to dive in and get to work.”