Meta Platforms Inc. is reshuffling its artificial intelligence (AI) team yet again—the fourth time in six months—to “accelerate” its pursuit of so-called superintelligence.
The company is expected to quarter its new AI unit, Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL), into four distinct teams: TBD Lab, which will oversee Meta’s large language models, including Llama tools; Products and Applied Research that includes the Meta AI assistant; MSL Infra, an infrastructure team; and the Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) lab, which is focused on long-term research. The Information first reported of the reorg.
“Superintelligence is coming, and in order to take it seriously, we need to organize around the key areas that will be critical to reach it — research, product and infra,” Alexandr Wang, the former Scale AI CEO who joined Meta as chief AI officer in June, wrote in an internal memo Tuesday.
The constant tinkering of Meta’s AI efforts, primarily orchestrated by company CEO Mark Zuckerberg, signals deepening concerns that the social-networking giant is being outpaced by rivals OpenAI, Microsoft Corp., Anthropic, and Alphabet Inc.’s Google. And it points to growing frustration with the poor reception of its latest open-source Llama 4 model.
The organizational shakeup has underscored Zuckerberg’s all-out effort in recent months to fast-track work on artificial general intelligence (AGI), machines that can outthink humans. To that end, Zuckerberg has authorized nine-figure contracts to poach dozens of costly AI researchers and engineers from the likes of Apple Inc. and elsewhere, while at the same time forging deep-pocketed efforts to build out the infrastructure necessary to get there.
On Thursday, the company confirmed a Wall Street Journal report that it has paused hiring for its new AI division amid the restructuring.
Still, Meta plans to plow billions of dollars into constructing massive AI data centers; it chose U.S. bond giant PIMCO and Blue Owl Capital to lead $29 billion financing for data center expansion in rural Louisiana, according to a recent Reuters report. What is more, last month Meta raised the bottom end of its annual capital expenditures forecast to $72 billion from $66 billion.
Before announcing the formation of MSL in June, Meta had three AI teams: FAIR;, an AI products group; and the AGI foundations team, which is focused on generative AI products and research.
