Meta Is Reportedly Offering Up to Nine-Figure Pay for Researchers on Its New Superintelligence AI Team Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, 41, is overseeing the hiring of staff for the new 50-person team.
By Sherin Shibu Edited by Melissa Malamut
Key Takeaways
- Meta is working towards superintelligence, or AI that exceeds human intelligence, by assembling a new team of experts.
- Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is personally involved in recruiting this team and is offering seven to nine-figure compensation packages to researchers who join.
Meta is putting together a new 50-person team to pursue superintelligence, or AI that surpasses human intelligence in every aspect, including memory, reasoning, and knowledge.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, 41, has been personally assembling a group of experts to join the secretive superintelligence team, inviting leading AI researchers and engineers at other companies to meet with him at his homes in Palo Alto and Lake Tahoe to discuss offers, according to a Bloomberg report on Tuesday.
Zuckerberg wants Meta to be the first company to achieve superintelligence, outpacing rivals like OpenAI and Google, and bring advanced AI capabilities to Meta's products, including its chatbot and AI-powered Ray-Ban smart glasses.
Related: Meta Lays Off Virtual Reality Division Employees: 'Deeply Saddened'
According to The New York Times, Zuckerberg has offered potential superintelligence team members compensation packages ranging from seven to nine figures — and some have already accepted the offer.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images
One reported recruit is 28-year-old billionaire AI startup founder Alexandr Wang. Meta is in talks to invest up to $10 billion in Wang's company, Scale AI, which was valued at nearly $14 billion last year with backing from Amazon and Microsoft. The deal would mark Meta's largest external investment yet. Wang and other Scale AI employees are expected to join the superintelligence team after the deal closes, per Bloomberg.
The outlet also reports that seating arrangements at Meta's Menlo Park headquarters now reflect Zuckerberg's focus on superintelligence as the CEO goes "founder mode" and takes a more hands-on management approach — reportedly by reorganizing desks at headquarters so that new staff on the superintelligence team will sit close to him.
Related: Meta Ends Fact-Checking Program, Replaces It With New System: 'We've Seen This Approach Work on X'
The approach arises as Meta loses AI talent to competitors. Menlo Ventures venture capitalist Deedy Das posted to X on Monday that though Meta offers more than $2 million per year for AI talent, it has lost multiple AI researchers this week alone to OpenAI and Anthropic.
"The AI talent wars are absolutely ridiculous," Das wrote.
Zuckerberg said in May that more than one billion users tap into Meta AI every month across the company's family of apps.
Meta stock was up 17% year-to-date at the time of writing.
