Meta Platforms Inc. is intensifying its efforts to enhance artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities by recruiting top talent from leading AI research organizations. This strategic move aims to bolster Meta's position in the competitive AI landscape.
In July 2025, Meta established the Superintelligence Labs, a division dedicated to advancing AI systems that can perform at or beyond human-level intelligence. The lab is co-led by Alexandr Wang, former CEO of Scale AI, and Nat Friedman, former CEO of GitHub. This initiative follows Meta's significant investment in Scale AI, reflecting a deep commitment to AI development.
Meta's recruitment strategy includes offering substantial compensation packages to attract leading AI researchers. Reports indicate that Meta has extended offers with total compensation packages up to $300 million over four years, with more than $100 million in total compensation for the first year. These efforts have led to the hiring of several prominent figures from OpenAI, including Trapit Bansal, Shengjia Zhao, Jiahui Yu, Shuchao Bi, and Hongyu Ren. These experts bring experience in building advanced reasoning systems, multimodal models, and foundational AI technologies.
Despite these aggressive recruitment efforts, Meta faces challenges in attracting and retaining top talent. Concerns about work-life balance and company values have been cited as factors influencing potential recruits' decisions. Additionally, Meta's AI models, such as Llama 4, have faced internal challenges, including underperformance against internal expectations and benchmark standards, prompting the company to seek external expertise to address these issues.
Meta's strategic focus on AI talent acquisition underscores the growing importance of artificial intelligence in the tech industry. By investing in top-tier talent and infrastructure, Meta aims to strengthen its AI capabilities and remain competitive in the rapidly evolving AI sector.