Meta Platforms, under the leadership of Mark Zuckerberg, has been aggressively pursuing a strategy to reboot its AI efforts, actively exploring acquisitions and making significant investments. Zuckerberg reportedly engaged in discussions to acquire several prominent AI startups, including Ilya Sutskever’s Safe Superintelligence (SSI), Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines Lab, and Perplexity, an AI-native Google rival. While none of these discussions led to formal offers due to factors such as disagreements over deal prices and strategy, they underscore Meta's intense canvassing of the industry for AI talent and technology.

Instead of acquisitions, Meta has made a substantial investment of $14.3 billion in Scale AI, acquiring a 49% stake and valuing the company at over $29 billion. As a critical component of this strategic move, Scale AI’s CEO, Alexandr Wang, has joined Meta to co-lead its new “superintelligence” division. Wang, along with SSI co-founder Daniel Gross and ex-Github CEO Nat Friedman, are poised to steer Meta's AI assistant endeavors, reporting directly to Wang. This initiative signifies Meta's shift toward developing advanced AI systems, specifically focusing on artificial general intelligence (AGI), which aims for human-like intelligence across a broad range of tasks. The competition for top AI talent is fierce, with reports of nine-figure and even ten-figure compensation offers being made. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's public comments downplaying employee departures to Meta highlight the competitive landscape for retaining skilled AI professionals.

Beyond foundational AI, Meta is also making significant strides in AI-powered hardware, particularly with its