With his new initiative, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is going all-in on the competitive AI frontier. In 2018 he spent $14.3 billion to launch the AI startup Scale AI. This is a smart investment despite the big dollars at play. It forms a strategic partnership, with Zuckerberg recruiting Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang to head up Meta’s AI efforts.
Through this aggressive deal, Meta has secured a majority stake in Scale AI at 49%. This decision marks Meta’s first formal step towards solidifying its intentions to be the leader in AI technologies. With the acquisition of Wang, Meta is poised to become a more formidable opponent. His deep experience, honed through his achievements within the AI sector, will be incredibly important here.
Besides this investment, Zuckerberg is apparently looking for similar talent across the tech industry. He is understandably excited to enrich his department with the likes of these heavyweight champions. He seems to have plans to recruit Nat Friedman, the former CEO of GitHub. He’s looking at Daniel Gross who founded the search engine Cue and was an early pioneer of machine learning at Apple and contribution to Siri. Neither Friedman nor Gross have responded to requests for comment on their possible future with Meta.
AI development is moving at breakneck speed. Just ask the founders of AI research labs that major tech companies like Meta and OpenAI are ruthlessly snatching up the top talent. Most recently, it was reported by OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, that Meta has been poaching OpenAI employees. They’re dangling up to $100 million in signing bonuses, along with even larger yearly compensation packages.
“None of our best people have decided to take them up on that,” – Sam Altman.
Altman has admitted that it bothers him that Meta sees OpenAI as the biggest threat. He stated, “I’ve heard that Meta thinks of us as their biggest competitor.” Read his full blog post for more on the high-pressure tactics companies like Meta are using in the AI arms race talent war.
“Their current AI efforts have not worked as well as they have hoped and I respect being aggressive and continuing to try new things,” – Sam Altman.
We know that the race for AI talent is growing fierce. Both Meta and OpenAI are bitterly battling to hire the most talented people who can drive innovation forward in this rapidly changing field. Not long ago, OpenAI pulled headlines by hiring legendary iPhone designer Jony Ive. This $6.5 billion move illustrates the increasing dollar stakes being placed in the competition for talent.