Latest news with #AlexandrWang
DW
a day ago
- Business
- DW
AI buildup: How Big Tech chases the technology's best brains – DW – 07/29/2025
Instead of building up in-house artificial intelligence expertise, companies like Meta are on a spending spree hoovering up talent. It's a billion-dollar bet that big pay packages will lead to tech dominance. Jobseekers around the world are using artificial intelligence (AI) to write their CVs. All they have to do is copy and paste the job description and ChatGPT will spit out a standard, if dull, resume that includes all the jargon a firm is looking for. Other candidates are using AI tools to scan the internet for the right jobs. Some companies are using similar technology to screen applications, schedule meetings, do rudimentary interviews and rank candidates. Yet, it is unlikely that the top-tier AI talent now moving from startups to more established tech giants like Meta, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon or Google had to jump through any of these hoops. There is a growing demand for experienced AI engineers and a shortage of qualified people in the field. This skills gap means that those with the right training are sought after and can name their price. This very small pool of AI experts is being actively pursued with huge signing bonuses and pay packages. In return these engineers are expected to create the next-generation models of artificial intelligence. The stakes are high, and a lot of money is being splashed around. Many AI startups are struggling to retain employees in this ultra-competitive environment. Even OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, raised pay to try and keep its engineers. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video At the same time, companies like Microsoft, Meta and Intel are laying off thousands of employees. The need for programmers and software developers has been especially hard hit since generative AI is increasingly able to write more code. As AI takes over more of these coding tasks, the most important programming jobs will be in designing the systems that do the programming, not programming itself. It is not just Big Tech going after top AI talent. Industries as diverse as finance, logistics, pharmaceuticals, retailing and the automotive sector are all building up their AI portfolios. Still, it is Meta and their newly created Meta Superintelligence Labs that has been getting most of the headlines as they reportedly offer up to $100 million (€85.4 million) in individual pay packages to lure AI developers. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been very hands-on in his company's hiring binge. Last week, Reuters news agency came out with lists of people Meta had recently recruited. Besides a handful of high-level employees from OpenAI and Apple, the lists also included Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang. This comes after Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, invested $14.3 billion for a 49% stake in Scale AI. As part of that deal, 28-year-old Wang will run the new Meta superintelligence division as chief AI officer. Among Big Tech, Meta is not alone in its AI buildup. Microsoft has invested over $13 billion in OpenAI and Amazon has invested $8 billion in Anthropic. Last year, Microsoft also paid $650 million to take over most of startup Inflection AI's team. This July, Google paid $2.4 billion to recruit the leaders of Windsurf, another AI startup. They, along with a small team of key people, are set to join Google DeepMind, the company's AI division. Some in the startup industry fear a broader cultural change. Instead of buying startups outright, bigger companies are now cherry-picking the parts — or people — they want and leaving behind the rest. This goes against the character of startup culture. Startups tend to prioritize collaboration and creativity to work on common goals. Many people join tech startups because of the potential financial rewards as it grows or is taken over by a bigger company. Now with only key individuals being poached these assumptions may no longer be true. Overall, global hiring for AI talent has grown more than 300% over the last eight years, according to a report published by professional network LinkedIn in January 2025. "Artificial Intelligence Engineer is one of the fastest-growing jobs in 15 countries and ranked #1 in the Netherlands, Singapore, UK and US," wrote Karin Kimbrough, LinkedIn's chief economist, to accompany the report's publication. LinkedIn, which is owned by Microsoft and claims 1 billion members in 200 countries worldwide, calculates that over 10,000 people apply for a job every minute through its platform. The company says AI literacy is one of the most in-demand skills across all jobs on the platform. The number of companies in the US with a "Head of AI" position has tripled in the past five years. As AI creates usable, real-world applications, its wider potential is still uncertain. Two and a half years after ChatGPT captured the public's attention and set off speculation about its possibilities, no one really knows where the AI road is heading. But no matter which way it is going, Big Tech is afraid of being left behind and is willing to throw money at the problem. At the same time, such high — and public — salaries bring their own problems. These huge pay packages have already caused salary inflation for the best AI engineers, something that competitors will have to match. Focus on stratospheric individual compensation could also impact team spirit. In the end, no matter how good newly developed AI products are, the billion-dollar investments could be wasted if they aren't adapted. A lot will depend on how businesses implement AI, and, so far, they have been slow on the uptake.
The Hindu
a day ago
- Business
- The Hindu
Scale AI competitor Micro1 raising funds at $500 million valuation, sources say
Scale AI competitor Micro1 is finalising a Series A round valuing the startup at $500 million, according to two sources familiar with the matter. Micro1 provides data labelling services to artificial intelligence labs, a sector that has grown tremendously in recent years as high-quality, human-generated datasets have become more important in training advanced AI systems. Micro1 has capitalised on this trend by building an AI-powered recruitment engine enabling AI labs to target specialised experts instead of large pools of low-wage labour. The company has told investors it has crossed $50 million in annualised revenue, up from $10 million earlier this year, and is projecting it will cross $100 million in annualised revenue by the end of September, the sources said. Former Twitter COO Adam Bain joined its board recently, and venture capital firms 01A and LG Technology Ventures will invest in the round, the sources said. Micro1 has benefited from recent changes at San Francisco-based Scale AI, a data labelling company that provides infrastructure and services to help organisations accelerate the development of AI models. Scale AI recently lost customers after Meta Platforms poached its CEO, Alexandr Wang, to become Meta's chief AI officer, leading Meta's new Superintelligence Labs. Among the customers that have left or are planning to leave Scale AI are Alphabet's Google and OpenAI, which are planning to move away over concerns that doing business with Scale could expose their research priorities to Meta. Another Scale AI competitor, Surge AI, is raising up to $1 billion, and raked in over $1 billion in revenue last year.
Entrepreneur
2 days ago
- Business
- Entrepreneur
Meta Appoints Ex-OpenAI Scientist Shengjia Zhao to Lead New Superintelligence Lab
Zhao, previously a research scientist at OpenAI, played a pivotal role in creating GPT-4 and various lighter models such as version 4.1 and o3. He is among at least eight researchers who have recently transitioned from OpenAI to Meta. You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media. Meta Platforms has appointed Shengjia Zhao, a leading figure in the development of OpenAI's ChatGPT, as chief scientist of its newly launched Superintelligence Lab. This high-profile move marks a significant step in Meta's accelerating drive to position itself at the forefront of advanced artificial intelligence. CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared the announcement on Friday through Threads. He said Zhao will guide the lab's scientific direction and collaborate closely with both Zuckerberg and Meta's Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang. Wang joined the company earlier this year after Meta took a substantial stake in his former company, Scale AI. Zhao, previously a research scientist at OpenAI, played a pivotal role in creating GPT-4 and various lighter models such as version 4.1 and o3. He is among at least eight researchers who have recently transitioned from OpenAI to Meta. The influx of talent signals Meta's intent to rapidly close the distance with competitors in the race toward building artificial general intelligence. The creation of the Superintelligence Lab is part of Meta's broader efforts to establish a premier AI research division. The lab is distinct from FAIR, Meta's long-standing AI unit led by deep learning pioneer Yann LeCun. While FAIR has focused on foundational research, the new lab aims to develop what Zuckerberg has described as full general intelligence. Zuckerberg also confirmed that Meta plans to open-source the work produced by the Superintelligence Lab. This strategy has drawn mixed reactions within the AI community, with some praising the transparency and others warning of risks linked to such openness. Meanwhile, Meta's recruitment campaign has unsettled OpenAI. Internal messages leaked this month revealed OpenAI Chief Research Officer Mark Chen comparing Meta's tactics to "someone breaking into our home and stealing something." In response, OpenAI is reportedly reassessing its compensation practices and offering staff additional time off to curb further departures. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has publicly criticised what he views as profit-driven hiring practices. He alleged that Meta has lured researchers with offers reaching USD 100 million in signing bonuses, a claim dismissed as exaggerated by Meta's Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth. However, reports of even higher offers, including an unverified USD 1.25 billion compensation package over four years, illustrate the escalating competition for elite AI talent. While Altman argues that OpenAI's mission-focused approach offers a stronger long-term foundation, others in the industry see Meta's strategy as justified. Google DeepMind's CEO Demis Hassabis called the hiring surge a rational response given Meta's desire to catch up. With over USD 14 billion invested in AI infrastructure and partnerships, Meta is making its intentions clear. The addition of Zhao and other key hires underscores the company's determination to lead—not just follow—the next wave of AI development.
Axios
5 days ago
- Business
- Axios
Mark Zuckerberg details Meta's superintelligence plans
Shengjia Zhao — formerly of OpenAI — will be chief scientist at Meta's new Superintelligence Lab, Mark Zuckerberg announced on Threads on Friday. Why it matters: The company is spending billions of dollars to hire key employees as it looks to jumpstart its effort and compete with Google, OpenAI and others. What they're saying: " In this role, Shengjia will set the research agenda and scientific direction for our new lab working directly with me and Alex," Zuckerberg wrote on Threads, presumably meaning former Scale CEO and founder Alexandr Wang. Catch-up quick: In addition to individual pay packages reportedly worth up to hundreds of millions of dollars per person in some cases, the company is investing $14.3 billion to take a 49% stake in Scale AI and hire its CEO Alexandr Wang. The company has been poaching talent from across the industry, nabbing key folks from Apple, OpenAI and Ilya Sutskever's Safe Superintelligence. From Apple, Meta grabbed AI experts Mark Lee and Tom Gunter, after hiring their boss Ruoming Pang, former head of Apple's LLM team, Bloomberg reported. Meta also hired Tianhe Yu, Cosmo Du and Weiyue Wang, three of the engineers that worked on the Gemini model that achieved gold medal performance at last week's International Mathematical Olympiad, right after the results were announced, per The Information. Between the lines: Hiring talent is just one part of the equation, of course.
Bloomberg
5 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Meta Says Open AI Hire is Superintelligence Group Chief Scientist
Mark Zuckerberg has named Shengjia Zhao, an artificial intelligence researcher who joined Meta Platforms Inc. from OpenAI in June, as the chief scientist for the social media company's new superintelligence AI group. Zhao was part of the team behind the original version of OpenAI's popular chatbot, ChatGPT. He will help lead Meta's high-profile group, which is aimaing to build new AI models that can perform tasks as well as or better than humans. Zhao will report to Alexandr Wang, the former chief executive officer of Scale AI who also joined Meta in June as Chief AI Officer.
