2025 has been a pivotal year for Meta, with Mark Zuckerberg personally spearheading a massive recruitment blitz to build out the company's "Superintelligence Labs" and cement its place as a leader in the AI race. The talent war has been fierce, with Meta reportedly offering record-breaking compensation packages to poach top researchers and engineers from its main rivals.
Here's a look at some of the new talent working with Mark Zuckerberg in 2025 and the broader strategy behind the hiring spree:
Key Hires and New Leadership
Instead of a single, large acquisition, Zuckerberg has focused on what can be described as an "acqui-hire" strategy, bringing in top-tier talent and sometimes their entire teams.
Alexandr Wang: The most high-profile addition is Alexandr Wang, the founder of data-labeling company Scale AI. Following a multi-billion dollar investment from Meta, Wang has joined the company to lead the new AI division. This move signals that Meta is not just buying technology but is also bringing in proven leadership and a startup-like mentality.
Nat Friedman: The former CEO of GitHub has also joined Meta to co-lead the new AI unit with Wang. Friedman brings a strong product and open-source background, which aligns with Meta's strategy of making its Llama models an industry standard.
Daniel Gross: A prominent AI investor and co-founder of the startup Safe Superintelligence, Gross has also been brought on board to lead the AI products division. His expertise in identifying and nurturing promising AI ventures is a significant asset.
The "Superintelligence" Team
In addition to the new leadership, Meta has hired dozens of researchers and engineers, with a significant number coming from rival labs. Reports indicate that Meta has successfully recruited talent from:
OpenAI: The competition for talent between Meta and OpenAI has been particularly intense. Meta has hired several key researchers who were instrumental in developing models like GPT-4 and GPT-4o.
Google DeepMind: Researchers from Google's cutting-edge AI lab, including those who worked on the Gemini project, have also joined the Meta team.
Apple and Anthropic: Meta has also brought in top talent from Apple's foundation models team and the AI startup Anthropic, further broadening the expertise within its new division.
The Strategy Behind the Hiring
Zuckerberg's approach to talent acquisition in 2025 is a departure from past strategies. Instead of large-scale, company-wide hiring, he has focused on building a series of small, "talent-dense" teams. He has been personally involved in the recruitment process, meeting with candidates at his homes and making a direct pitch about the company's ambitious vision for "superintelligence."
The goal is to create a dynamic, startup-like environment that can move faster and take more risks than a traditional corporate structure. This strategy is an attempt to address the rapid pace of AI development and ensure that Meta can stay competitive with nimble, AI-native startups and other tech giants. The company is offering unprecedented compensation packages, with some reports suggesting total packages of up to $300 million for top-tier talent. This financial commitment underscores just how critical this new talent is to Meta's future.
