Meta is making a huge push for AI 'superintelligence'

Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t just want Meta (META) to be smart — he wants it to be super smart. The CEO is reportedly creating an AI lab to pursue “superintelligence” as Meta jockeys for position at the forefront of an ever-crowded AI field.

Zuckerberg is largely focused on achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI) — a currently theoretical humanlike level of intelligence where a machine can perform any task a person can. Meta could then weave that AGI across its product suite — chatbots, augmented reality glasses, and more.

According to Bloomberg, Zuckerberg has been personally recruiting top AI talent and has been prioritizing the staffing and development of this new team, which is being referred to internally as a “superintelligence group,” according to people familiar with the matter. The Meta CEO is reportedly looking to hire 50 people for the team, which he hopes will make his company a leader in AI.

Meta is reportedly in talks for a $10 billion-plus investment in Scale AI — a data platform company that helps companies train models — and the company will likely play a big role in Zuckerberg’s plans. Alexandr Wang, the company’s founder and CEO (and former housemate of OpenAI’s Sam Altman), has been tapped to join Meta’s venture, and the investment deal is poised to bring other Scale AI employees to Meta. Other researchers from Meta’s rivals have reportedly been offered seven- to nine-figure deals to jump ship.

Sources told The New York Times that the superintelligence lab is part of a larger reorganization effort and comes at a time when Zuckerberg has been frustrated by failing product releases, such as Llama 4, which has been questioned both internally and externally by developers. Despite Zuckerberg’s claims that Meta’s Llama model worked as well as (or better than) models from industry leaders, researchers largely decided that Meta’s model was designed to look more advanced than it actually was.

As a a result, the company delayed plans to release its next iteration, “Behemoth,” with the Wall Street Journal reporting that Meta’s brass was worried the model didn’t sufficiently improve on previous models. Sources told Bloomberg that these missteps have led Zuckerberg to get more involved in the company’s AI dealings. The CEO has reportedly created a WhatsApp group with top execs called “Recruiting Party” to find talent it will try to hire away to help with Meta’s efforts.

While Meta has invested billions in AI, it still lags behind others in the field. OpenAI’s ChatGPT continues to rake in money — and has increased its paid user base by 50% in three months. Microsoft (MSFT) has invested more than $13 billion in OpenAI, and its stock has soared as investors see that the company’s aggressive moves are paying off. Amazon (AMZN) has poured more than $8 billion into startup Anthropic — and is continuing to make big investments to expand its data services. And Google (GOOGL) has continued to develop its AI research lab, DeepMind, which Google parent Alphabet bought in 2014.

So Zuckerberg needs Meta’s AI lab to be super — in more ways than one.