Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL) is the name of the new AI unit for which Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been aggressively recruiting. The division will be led by Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang, who joined last month after Zuckerberg paid an estimated $15 billion for Scale AI, where Wang was CEO and co-founder. Nat Friedman, who ran GitHub for Microsoft from 2018 to 2021, will “partner with Alex to lead MSL” heading products and applied research, Zuckerberg said in an internal memo. The new group will encompass Meta’s AI foundations, product and FAIR (Fundamental AI Research) teams as well as the lab for next generation models.

Friedman served on the Meta Advisory Group for the past year, and last month Zuckerberg reportedly made arrangements to “partially acquire” the venture capital fund NFDG Friedman founded with Daniel Gross so he could bring both executives onboard.

The 49 percent buyout — a tactic he also used to recruit Wang — is said to be a strategy that allows Zuckerberg to absorb talent and companies without the implications of a controlling interest that would potentially trigger governmental scrutiny.

Since June 2024, Gross had also run OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever’s Safe Superintelligence, with CNBC reporting that “Meta had attempted to buy Safe Superintelligence but was rebuffed by Sutskever.”

Zuckerberg’s memo, reprinted in full by CNBC, lists two OpenAI scientists among roughly a dozen others joining the company.

“As the pace of AI progress accelerates, developing superintelligence is coming into sight,” Zuckerberg explains in the memo. “I believe this will be the beginning of a new era for humanity, and I am fully committed to doing what it takes for Meta to lead the way.”

“Meta will spend ‘hundreds of billions’ on AI projects and research in the years to come, Zuckerberg has said, though the Facebook founder also expects that many firms will likely overspend on AI in an effort to avoid missing the wave,” writes Bloomberg, quoting him calling such huge investment “rational,” because “the downside of being behind is that you’re out of position for, like, the most important technology for the next 10 to 15 years.”

In May, Zuckerberg restructured Meta’s AI operations, putting Connor Hayes in charge of products. Hayes will now work with Friedman to redefine his role, Zuckerberg wrote in the memo. Three weeks ago, reports began circulating about Zuckerberg’s plans for Meta’s push into AI superintelligence.

The Wall Street Journal writes that Zuckerberg has personally been reaching out to potential recruits, saying “there are more ‘great people at all levels joining this effort in the coming weeks.’”

Related:
Mark Zuckerberg Already Knows Your Life. Now He Wants His AI to Run It, Gizmodo, 6/30/25
Here Is Everyone Mark Zuckerberg Has Hired So Far for Meta’s ‘Superintelligence’ Team, Wired, 6/30/25
Here’s What Mark Zuckerberg Is Offering Top AI Talent, Wired, 7/1/25
Sam Altman Slams Meta’s AI Talent-Poaching Spree: ‘Missionaries Will Beat Mercenaries’, Wired, 7/1/25