Meta Pursues CEO of Ilya Sutskever’s $32B AI Startup After Acquisition Attempt

Mark Zuckerberg is actively seeking AI talent. Recently, Meta attempted to acquire Safe Superintelligence, the $32 billion AI startup co-founded by former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, as reported by CNBC on Thursday.

CNBC reports that Sutskever ultimately turned down Meta’s offer, but the company is currently in talks to recruit Safe Superintelligence’s co-founder and CEO, Daniel Gross. Earlier this week, The Information noted that Meta is also exploring options to hire Gross along with former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman. Moreover, Meta is looking to invest in the venture firm NFDG, established by Friedman and Gross, which has supported prominent AI startups such as Perplexity and Character.AI.

Bringing Gross and Friedman into the fold could significantly bolster Meta’s AI superintelligence lab, as they would bring invaluable knowledge and experience from their roles in managing and funding AI research projects. Earlier this month, Meta announced that Alexandr Wang, CEO of Scale AI, and several leaders from the data labeling startup would also be joining the company.