Meta’s recent moves make clear that the company is doubling down on AI in a bid to catch—or even overtake—rivals in the race toward artificial general intelligence (AGI). After last week’s landmark $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI and the hiring of its founder Alexandr Wang, Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg appears determined to keep the momentum going by targeting other high-profile figures and ventures in the AI space. Big tech giants have poured billions into AI partnerships and acquisitions, and Meta’s activity exemplifies how aggressive these strategies have become.

Earlier in 2025, Meta approached Safe Superintelligence (SSI), the startup co-founded by Ilya Sutskever, with an acquisition proposal reportedly valuing the company near $32 billion. SSI itself launched in mid‑2024 after Sutskever’s departure from OpenAI and quickly attracted eye‑popping valuations (some rounds placing it around $30–$32 billion) based largely on the co-founder’s pedigree and the startup’s stated mission of “safe superintelligence” development without commercial distractions. Meta’s overture underscored the premium companies place on aligning with ventures led by AI luminaries—but this deal did not go through.

According to confidential sources, Ilya Sutskever—and SSI’s leadership—rebuffed Meta’s takeover offer, preferring to maintain independence rather than join a larger corporate structure. Reports indicate they also turned down Meta’s attempt to recruit Sutskever himself. The rationale, as gleaned from reporting, likely hinges on SSI’s stated focus: building superintelligent systems under an explicit safety-first ethos, free from the commercial pressures and product-driven timelines typical of big tech. For Sutskever and colleagues, the priority seems to be pursuing a singular mission of alignment and safety research, rather than folding into Meta’s broader roadmap.

Once the acquisition talks faltered, Zuckerberg’s team shifted gears toward SSI’s CEO Daniel Gross. Gross, an experienced entrepreneur and AI specialist, co-founded SSI alongside Sutskever and Daniel Levy. Having built credentials in pioneering projects at Apple (including contributions to machine learning efforts and Siri) and a track record as a founding executive at Cue (acquired by Apple in 2013), Gross fits the mold of the “superstar hire” Meta has been seeking. Sources indicate negotiations moved quickly to bring Gross on board at Meta, with an explicit role under Alexandr Wang’s new superintelligence unit.

Parallel discussions brought former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman into the picture. Friedman, who led GitHub after Microsoft’s acquisition in 2018 and later invested in AI ventures, is Daniel Gross’s partner at the venture fund NFDG (their initials: Nat, Daniel, Friedman, Gross). Meta is reportedly negotiating not only to hire both Gross and Friedman but also to take a stake in NFDG itself. This multi-pronged approach suggests Meta sees value not only in individual talent but also in the broader deal flow and network that a fund like NFDG brings—backing companies such as Coinbase, Figma, CoreWeave, Perplexity, and Character.AI.

According to reporting, Gross and Friedman will join Meta to work on AI products under the leadership of Alexandr Wang, who himself was recently “acqui‑hired” alongside a team from Scale AI as part of Meta’s $14.3 billion injection into that startup. In addition, Meta will receive a stake in NFDG, aligning its incentives with the fund’s portfolio and possibly creating ongoing channels for collaboration or future investments. Meta’s public statement remains circumspect: a spokesperson indicated the company “will share more about our superintelligence effort and the great people joining this team in the coming weeks.”

Meta’s aggressive tactics are emblematic of a larger trend: leading tech players are sparring fiercely over limited talent capable of advancing large language models (LLMs) and related technologies toward AGI. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has publicly noted that Meta has dangled signing bonuses up to $100 million to lure rivals’ engineers, though none of OpenAI’s top talent have reportedly taken the bait. Meanwhile, OpenAI itself has made high-profile hires and acquisitions—reportedly spending about $6.5 billion to bring in Jony Ive’s nascent devices startup—underscoring that the war for people is as intense as the war for models and computing power.

Other notable moves in this broader arms race include Google’s reacquisition of Character.AI founders, Microsoft’s $650 million talent purchase from Inflection AI (including DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman), and partnerships between AI startups and cloud providers for compute resources. In this ecosystem, Meta’s hiring spree reflects its ambition to shore up capabilities across cutting-edge research, product integration, and long-term safety considerations.

Who are Daniel Gross and Nat Friedman?

Daniel Gross: Before co-founding SSI, Gross built a name as an entrepreneur at Apple, working on machine learning and Siri, and previously founded Cue, a search engine acquired by Apple in 2013. He then served as a partner at Y Combinator, advising early-stage startups, before teaming up with Sutskever at Safe Superintelligence. His background blends hands-on engineering, product leadership, and startup scaling—qualities Meta likely values for its “superintelligence” initiatives.

Nat Friedman: As CEO of GitHub from 2018 until 2021, Friedman steered one of the world’s largest developer platforms through critical growth phases under Microsoft’s ownership. After leaving GitHub, he remained influential in tech circles, co-founding NFDG with Gross to invest in AI and related ventures. His experience spans product strategy, developer ecosystems, and early‑stage investing, complementing Gross’s technical and entrepreneurial profile.

Meta has yet to deliver a breakout consumer AI product on par with ChatGPT or other leading LLM-driven tools. Internal reports suggest past AI initiatives have fallen short of expectations, driving Zuckerberg to pursue bold and expensive bets on talent and external partnerships. By assembling teams under Wang’s superintelligence unit—now bolstered by Gross, Friedman, and possibly stakes in NFDG—Meta aims to accelerate research, inject fresh perspectives, and tap into networks that funnel promising startups and ideas.