Meta’s Big AI Push Gets Even Bigger
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is continuing his aggressive drive into artificial intelligence by bringing in two more big names from the AI world — Daniel Gross and Nat Friedman. This bold move comes just days after Meta announced a $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI, securing a 49% stake and bringing on board its founder, Alexandr Wang.
Zuckerberg’s mission is clear: Meta wants to lead the race toward artificial general intelligence (AGI), and he’s sparing no expense to do it.
Who Are the New Hires?
Daniel Gross is the CEO of Safe Superintelligence, a startup he co-founded with Ilya Sutskever — one of OpenAI’s original co-founders. Gross is not only an AI expert but also a seasoned entrepreneur and investor. He previously sold his startup Cue to Apple, worked on Siri and machine learning at Apple, and later became a partner at Y Combinator.
Nat Friedman, the other major hire, is the former CEO of GitHub. After Microsoft acquired GitHub in 2018, Friedman helped grow the platform significantly. Before that, he had founded and sold two startups and is also known for his sharp eye in venture investing.
Together, Gross and Friedman run a venture capital firm called NFDG, which has invested in successful companies like Coinbase, Figma, CoreWeave, Perplexity, and Character.ai.
Meta Tried to Buy Safe Superintelligence
According to sources familiar with the matter, Meta originally wanted to go bigger — they tried to buy Gross and Sutskever’s startup Safe Superintelligence, which had reached a valuation of $32 billion as of April 2025. However, Sutskever rejected both the acquisition offer and Meta’s attempt to hire him directly.
After this rejection, Meta shifted gears. Instead of acquiring the whole company, they focused on hiring Gross — a move that proved successful. Along with Friedman, Gross will now join Meta to work under Alexandr Wang’s team.
Meta Gets a Stake in NFDG
As part of the deal, Meta is also getting a stake in NFDG, the investment firm Gross and Friedman operate. It’s still unclear what will happen to the firm’s current investments, but sources say Meta’s involvement could mean more influence over some of the hottest startups in AI today.
This is not just a talent hire — it’s also a strategic bet on long-term innovation and influence in the AI space.
Meta Responds to the Growing AI Talent War
Zuckerberg’s latest hires highlight how competitive the AI landscape has become. Meta, Google, OpenAI, Microsoft, and other tech giants are all racing to build the most powerful large language models and achieve AGI — AI that can match or even surpass human intelligence.
Just last week, Meta’s $14.3 billion deal with Scale AI showed how serious Zuckerberg is about leading in this space. Wang, now part of Meta, is already working on new AI products, and the addition of Gross and Friedman strengthens Meta’s leadership even further.
OpenAI and Others Are Also Fighting for Talent
Meta isn’t the only company spending big to attract top talent. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently revealed that Meta offered OpenAI engineers signing bonuses as high as $100 million. Despite these offers, Altman claimed that none of their top people had left.
On a podcast hosted by his brother, Altman said, “I’ve heard that Meta thinks of us as their biggest competitor.” He also noted that while Meta’s AI projects have faced challenges, he respects their determination to keep pushing forward.
Meanwhile, OpenAI has also made bold moves — including a $6.5 billion partnership with famed iPhone designer Jony Ive and the acquisition of his new devices startup, io.
A Trend Across the Tech Industry
Meta’s aggressive hiring is part of a bigger trend where top tech companies are not just acquiring startups — they are targeting the people behind them. Last year, Google successfully brought back the founders of Character.ai in a multibillion-dollar deal. Microsoft, too, made headlines when it hired DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman as part of a $650 million talent acquisition from Inflection AI.
With these latest hires, Zuckerberg is showing that he is willing to match or outdo anyone in the race to recruit the world’s best AI minds.
What’s Next for Meta?
A Meta spokesperson has confirmed that more details will be shared soon about the company’s superintelligence initiative and the new team members joining the effort.
One thing is clear: Zuckerberg is making a major bet on the future of AI — and he’s not afraid to shake up the industry to make it happen.
As the race for AI dominance continues, all eyes will be on Meta’s next moves and how these high-profile hires help shape the company’s path toward artificial general intelligence.
For similar content visit here
