Latest news with #Mark Zuckerberg
Times
4 days ago
- Science
- Times
Gods of Silicon Valley haven't done their history homework
If you were in any doubt quite how much planet-destroying energy is required to fuel AI, Mark Zuckerberg announced last week that Meta was building a couple of multi-gigawatt data centres. One, being built in Louisiana, is going to be nearly the size of Manhattan and will draw on 5 gigawatts (GW) of energy; the other in Ohio, due to be operational next year, will be at least 1GW. To put that in context, on a quiet day, the entire UK can run on as little as 15GW. But it was not so much the scale of these data centres fuelling 'superintelligence' that caught my eye, but what Zuckerberg had chosen to call them. The first to come on stream is Prometheus. The sound you hear is Mary Beard and other classical scholars rolling their eyes. Zuckerberg has named it after the titan in Greek mythology who stole fire from the gods to give to humanity, a heroic act that Meta's founder believes has powerful echoes for his own selfless giving to all of us the 'poke' on Facebook. But has he forgotten the second part of the tale? Prometheus was punished for this terrible deed by being tied to a rock and having his liver pecked out by an eagle — for eternity. The second data centre, the one the size of a city, is named after another titan: Hyperion. While he may not have come to such a sticky end, he did have sex with his sister in order to birth the sun, moon and dawn, a relationship possibly more problematic than that of the kiss cam couple caught at the Coldplay concert. Earlier this week my colleague James Marriott wrote about the utter weirdness of the past. It was, as usual, a wonderful column, but he accused Silicon Valley billionaires of being consumed with the present and suffering from 'historical incuriosity' in their belief they have discovered the solutions to humanity's eternal questions. I'm not sure that's true. If anything, Zuck and his fellow tech bros are overly obsessed with classical history. Growing up, Zuckerberg moved high schools specifically so he could indulge his passion for Latin; his sister is a respected classics scholar. He adores the Roman Empire so much so that he and his wife, Priscilla, have named their three children Maxima, Aurelia (after Marcus Aurelius) and August, after Augustus Caesar. Last year he unveiled a rather alarming 7ft green statue of his wife, explaining he was bringing 'back the Roman tradition of designing sculptures of people you love'. His man-crush on Augustus, he has explained, is because 'basically, through a really harsh approach, he established 200 years of world peace'. I'm not sure the Britons, Gauls or Germanic tribes would quite see it that way. As the Roman historian Tacitus said: 'They make a desert and call it peace.' Many pockets of the business world, but Silicon Valley in particular, revel in Roman and Greek history, showing their fondness for all things classical by giving their hedge funds or data centres grandiloquent names, an attempt to burnish their sometimes flaky ventures with a veneer of respectability. Nomura, the Japanese investment bank, back in 2021 launched Cassandra, 'an early warning model for financial crises', perhaps failing to realise that the fate of Cassandra was that she was never to be believed. In 2023, a defence company started in California developing 'solar powered birds', lightweight autonomous aircraft designed to fly up in the stratosphere. It has called itself Icarus. What?! Does it not know its namesake flew too close to the sun and plunged to a terrible, watery death? I have a theory — a sketchy one, admittedly — that the more desperately classical a business name is, the more likely it is to get into trouble. Nike and Oracle are clear exceptions to this rule, but it certainly holds true for Hermes, the parcel delivery company named after the messenger to the gods. It had such a terrible reputation for tardiness and losing customers' packages that it was compelled to rename itself Evri. Arcadia, Philip Green's clothing empire, ended up being not a rural idyll but a chain of empty urban shops. Any venture named after the titans is risky; not just, obviously, Titanic but also Titan, the ill-fated mini submarine that imploded in 2023. Clarium was the investment vehicle set up by Peter Thiel, the billionaire co-founder of PayPal and early investor in Facebook, who delights so much in playing a Marvel super-villain he has signed up to have his body cryogenically frozen after he dies. Clarium derives from the Latin for 'clear' or 'famous', but the only thing famous about Clarium was that it lost 90 per cent of its value. Since then, Thiel's ventures have referenced The Lord of the Rings, notably Palantir, named after Tolkien's all-seeing stones. When you are selling your highly secretive surveillance technology to government agencies around the world, I'm not sure it's wise to name it after a device which — when it fell into the hands of Sauron — became a tool of control and manipulation. This casual approach to nomenclature, however, is typical of a generation of business leaders who have read the classics widely but shallowly, who believe history and literature can be crunched down to a post on LinkedIn or, in Zuckerberg's case, a T-shirt slogan. He has been spotted wearing one saying 'Carthago delenda est' — Carthage must be destroyed. Perhaps he needs to spend more time with his sister, who can point him to Oedipus Rex, where a caution is given to any man hubristic enough to defy the gods: a 'rough doom' will tear him down, repaying 'his pride, breakneck, ruinous pride!'
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Meta is shelling out big bucks to get ahead in AI. Here's who it's hiring
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is on a mission for his company to be the first to reach so-called artificial superintelligence — generally considered to mean AI that's better than all humans at all knowledge work. It's a nebulous and likely far-out concept that some analysts say may not immediately benefit the company's core business. Yet Zuckerberg is shelling out huge sums to build an all-star team of researchers and engineers to beat OpenAI and other rivals to it. Zuckerberg's recruiting spree, which has reportedly included multimillion-dollar pay packages to lure top talent away from key rivals, has kicked off a talent race within the AI industry. Last month, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman claimed Meta was offering his employees $100 million signing bonuses to switch companies. And just this week, Google CEO Sundar Pichai was asked during an earnings call about his company's status in the AI talent war, a sign that Wall Street is now also invested in the competition. The stakes are high for Zuckerberg — after Meta's pivot to the metaverse fell flat, he's reoriented the company around AI in hopes of being a leader in the next transformational technology wave. The company has invested billions in data centers and chips to power its AI ambitions that it's now under pressure to deliver on. Unlike other tech giants, Meta doesn't have a cloud computing business to generate immediate revenue from those infrastructure investments. And the company is coming from somewhat behind competitors, after reported delays in releasing the largest version of its new Llama 4 AI model. 'That's the Llama 4 lesson: You can have hundreds of thousands of (GPU chips), but if you don't have the right team developing the model, it doesn't matter,' said D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria. But more than anything, Zuckerberg appears to be in a circle of Silicon Valley 'AI maximalists' that believe the technology will change everything about how we live and work. Becoming a leader in the space is essential to Meta and other companies whose leaders follow that line of thinking, Luria said. 'For our superintelligence effort, I'm focused on building the most elite and talent-dense team in the industry,' Zuckerberg said in a Threads post earlier this month. Meta last month invested $14.3 billion in data labeling startup Scale AI. Scale founder and then-CEO Alexandr Wang joined the social media giant as part of the deal, along with several of Scale's other top employees. Wang is now leading the new Meta Superintelligence Labs team, along with former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman. 'My job is to make amazing AI products that billions of people love to use,' Friedman said in an X post earlier this month. 'It won't happen overnight, but a few days in, I'm feeling confident that great things are ahead.' On Friday, Zuckerberg announced that Shengjia Zhao, one of the co-creators of ChatGPT who Meta hired away from OpenAI several weeks ago, will be chief scientist of Meta Superintelligence Labs. Zhao will 'set the research agenda and scientific direction' for the team, Zuckerberg said. (Meta's existing chief scientist, Yann LeCun, who has been with the company for more than a decade, will remain in his position leading the company's Fundamental AI Research team, a spokesperson confirmed.) In recent weeks, Meta has also attracted top researchers and engineers from Apple, Google and Anthropic. Multiple news outlets, including Bloomberg, Wired and The Verge, have reported that Meta has, in some cases, offered pay packages worth hundreds of millions of dollars to new AI hires. It's a sign of just how far Zuckerberg is willing to go in his quest to win the AI superintelligence race, although the Meta chief has pushed back on some of the reporting around the compensation figures. It is with that mission that Meta's new team will be working to build superintelligence. Here are some of the most prominent recent hires to the team. This list was compiled based on public statements, social media profiles and posts, and news reports, and may not be exhaustive. Meta declined to comment on this story. Zuckerberg's drive to get ahead on AI may be rooted in part in his desire to own a foundational platform for the next major technology wave. Meta lost the race to control the operating systems for the mobile web era in the early 2000s and 2010s, which Apple and Google won. In recent years, he has not been shy about expressing his frustration with having to pay fees to app store operators and comply with their policies. Meta recently partnered with Amazon Web Services on a program to support startups that want to build on its Llama AI model, in an effort to make its technology essential to businesses emerging during the AI boom. Although AI has benefitted Meta's core advertising business, some analysts question how Zuckerberg's quest for 'superintelligence' will benefit the company. Emarketer senior analyst Minda Smiley said she expects Meta executives to face tough questions during the company's earnings call next week about how its superintelligence ambitions 'align with the company's broader business roadmap.' 'Its attempts to directly compete with the likes of OpenAI … are proving to be more challenging for the company while costing it billions of dollars,' Smiley said. But as its core business continues to grow rapidly, Meta has the money to spend to build its team and 'steal' from rivals, said CFRA Research analyst Angelo Zino. And, at least for now, investors seem to be here for it — the company's shares have risen around 20% since the start of this year. And if Zuckerberg succeeds with his vision, it could propel Meta far beyond a social media company. 'I think Mark's in a manifest destiny point of his career,' said Zack Kass, an AI consultant and former OpenAI go-to-market lead. 'He always wants to point to Facebook groups as being this way that he is connecting the world … And if he can build superintelligence that cures cancer, he doesn't have to talk about Facebook groups anymore as being his like lasting legacy.' Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
23-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Meta's quest to dominate the AI world
Facebook parent Meta (META) is spending billions of dollars to grab the lead in the AI race, building out the data centers needed to develop and power high-end large language models. And now, the company is pouring billions more into snatching up top talent and technologies to grab the lead in the AI wars. In its latest hiring coup, Meta has poached three OpenAI ( researchers — Google DeepMind alums Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov, and Xiaohua Zhai — from its Zurich office, The Wall Street Journal reported late Wednesday. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman claims that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has offered the company's employees upward of $100 million to join his AI efforts. Meanwhile, Meta is reportedly in talks to bag Safe Superintelligence CEO Daniel Gross and former Github CEO Nat Friedman for its planned superintelligence lab. Zuckerberg was initially eyeing all of Safe Superintelligence, but was shot down by co-founder Ilya Sutskever, according to CNBC. The moves come after Meta invested $14.3 billion in AI startup Scale AI and hired its CEO and co-founder Alexandr Wang. That's not all: Meta also wanted to buy Perplexity AI ( but couldn't come to terms on a deal. 'Meta is doing this because they want to win the AI race, period,' Forrester analyst Mike Proulx told Yahoo Finance. 'AI is everything right now.' All of this follows Meta's decision to postpone the debut of its massive Llama 4 Behemoth AI model. According to The Wall Street Journal, the company won't launch the model until later this fall over concerns that it isn't a big enough upgrade over prior models. 'I think this is two things: No. 1 [is] confirmation that Llama is struggling,' Deepwater Asset Management managing partner Gene Munster told Yahoo Finance. 'And second, is [it's] also a sign that Zuckerberg is not OK with that.' For Meta, the goal is clear: bring in as much fresh talent as possible to push its AI program forward and take the lead in the AI wars. Meta's AI moves Meta's effort to rule the AI world differs from its chief rivals, OpenAI, Google, xAI, and others. Rather than closing off its AI models, the company offers them as open-source software that developers and companies can use on their own. Meta imposes some restrictions on how users can take advantage of its models. For instance, the company requires firms to request a license from Meta if their product has more than 700 million monthly active users. Regardless, Meta's ultimate goal is to get as many people as it's comfortable with using and developing products via its AI models. Why not charge everyone who wants to access its software? Because Meta benefits every time a company alters its models, giving it greater insights into how it can improve them down the line. Meta isn't terribly interested in selling access to its models, either. The company primarily uses its AI to power its advertising and content recommendation services, unlike, say, Microsoft (MSFT), which sells its AI services as part of its productivity software packages, among other things. Meta CFO Susan Li told investors during the company's most recent earnings call that it saw a 4% increase in user time spent on the Threads app since introducing Llama to its recommendation systems at the end of last year. Meta is also leaning on its AI models to provide the intelligence for its hardware products including its Ray-Ban Meta smartglasses and other future AI-powered devices. 'Why Meta is making these moves is that they've got a ton of money, and so with that money, they are in a good position to, if they can't build it themselves, acquire the talent and capabilities necessary to …leapfrog the competition,' Proulx explained. But Meta isn't the only company circling Silicon Valley's AI upstarts. Apple is also reportedly looking into bagging its own AI company as the iPhone maker looks to improve its own AI fortunes. Apple was supposed to release an AI-powered version of Siri earlier this year, but has pushed the rollout until later this year as it contends with its own development difficulties. To that end, Apple has also discussed purchasing Perplexity AI, according to Bloomberg. While a spokesperson for Perplexity said the company has no knowledge of current or future M&A discussions, they added, 'It shouldn't be a surprise that the best OEMs in the world want to offer the best search and most accurate AI for their users, and that's Perplexity.' Apple rival Samsung is also reportedly looking to add Perplexity to its devices. For Meta, it will all come down to whether it can woo the right people from the right AI firms to join its AI push and catapult the company into the pole position in the AI race. If it can't, the social media giant could find itself falling further without a clear path forward. Email Daniel Howley at dhowley@ Follow him on X/Twitter at @DanielHowley. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Fox News
21-07-2025
- Business
- Fox News
Meta builds world's largest AI superclusters for the future
What happens when one of the world's richest companies decides to go all-in on artificial intelligence? If you're Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, it means launching superclusters so large they could rival the footprint of Manhattan. Recently, Zuckerberg unveiled plans to invest "hundreds of billions of dollars" into next-generation AI infrastructure, including some of the largest compute clusters the world has ever seen. Meta's first supercluster, called Prometheus, is slated to go live in 2026. But that's just the beginning. Another cluster, Hyperion, is being designed to scale up to a mind-blowing 5 gigawatts of compute power over the next few years. "We're building multiple titan clusters," Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post. "Just one of these covers a significant part of the footprint of Manhattan." Sign up for my FREE CyberGuy ReportGet my best tech tips, urgent security alerts, and exclusive deals delivered straight to your inbox. Plus, you'll get instant access to my Ultimate Scam Survival Guide - free when you join my The answer is simple: compute power is now the most valuable resource in AI development. As generative AI, robotics and large language models become more sophisticated, they demand exponentially more data and processing capacity. Meta's planned superclusters, beginning with Prometheus, will be capable of training ultra-large AI models faster and more efficiently than ever before. According to industry publication SemiAnalysis, Meta could become the first AI company to launch a supercluster exceeding one gigawatt of compute power. That's a serious leap and a direct shot at competitors like OpenAI, Google DeepMind and Anthropic. To supercharge this effort, Meta recently launched Meta Superintelligence Labs, a new elite division focused entirely on next-gen AI development. The lab is being led by Alexandr Wang, former CEO of Scale AI, and Nat Friedman, ex-GitHub chief. In a major signal of intent, Meta invested $14.3 billion in Scale AI and has reportedly poached top talent from Apple, OpenAI and Anthropic to join the effort. "I'm focused on building the most elite and talent-dense team in the industry," Zuckerberg said. He's putting his money where his mouth is, literally. Meta is offering some AI recruits up to $100 million in compensation as it rushes to assemble a dream team of AI researchers and engineers. It's no secret that Meta has struggled to keep pace with the AI breakthroughs happening at rival labs. The company's Llama 4 large language models received a lukewarm reception earlier this year. Now, Meta is retooling. The investment in infrastructure, talent, and research is Zuckerberg's way of leveling the playing field-and possibly pulling ahead. In April, Meta increased its 2025 capital expenditures to $64-72 billion, a massive chunk of which will go toward AI development. These numbers aren't just headline-grabbing, they're a clear signal that Meta is done playing catch-up. You might be wondering how Meta's massive investment in AI superclusters actually affects your life. As Meta builds out these enormous compute clusters, the AI systems they train will become faster, smarter and more deeply integrated into the apps and services you already use. Everything from your Instagram feed to your Facebook search results will be powered by increasingly intelligent algorithms. Virtual assistants will respond more naturally, recommendations will become eerily accurate, and features in Meta's AR and VR platforms, like Meta Quest, will get significantly more advanced. Even the ads you see will be more personalized, based on AI's growing ability to predict what you might want before you even search for it. In short, while you might not see these superclusters, you'll definitely feel their impact, every time you scroll, swipe, tap or speak to an AI-powered device. Meta isn't just investing in AI. It's reshaping the future of it. With billions earmarked for superclusters, an elite team of researchers and cutting-edge infrastructure, the company is placing one of the largest tech bets in history. If it succeeds, Meta could lead the next era of AI. If it fails, it will have spent unprecedented sums chasing a dream that others already control. Is Meta building the future of AI or just trying to buy its way back into the race? Let us know by writing us at Sign up for my FREE CyberGuy ReportGet my best tech tips, urgent security alerts, and exclusive deals delivered straight to your inbox. Plus, you'll get instant access to my Ultimate Scam Survival Guide - free when you join my Copyright 2025 All rights reserved.
Yahoo
21-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Priscilla Chan's recruiting pitch? We can't pay as well as tech companies, but we've got GPUs
Mark Zuckerberg's Meta is betting on GPUs and compute power to help attract top talent. His philanthropic organization, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, is doing the same. His wife, Priscilla Chan, talked about CZI's recruitment efforts on a recent podcast episode. Compute power is a big draw for top talent, but not just in the world of AI. Priscilla Chan, Mark Zuckerberg's wife and the cofounder of the couple's philanthropic organization, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, spoke about the appeal of massive GPU clusters for biology researchers during a recent episode of Ashlee Vance's "Core Memory" podcast. "The other thing researchers really care about is access to GPUs," she said. "You're not going to make the most of someone if you don't actually have the GPUs for them to work from." Chan said, "We have that at CZI," adding that the organization has roughly 1,000 GPUs in its cluster, with plans to keep growing. In short, Chan said the pitch is: "Come work with us because we're going to have the computing power to support the research that you want to do." Another important factor is compensation, which she said is "obviously important," though she added that "we cannot compete with tech companies on this." CZI has in recent years narrowed its mission to focus on its "next phase" with a "bolder, clearer identity as a science-first philanthropy." The change marks a strategic shift, as the organization previously also supported education and other causes. "While CZI remains committed to our work in education and our local communities, we recognize that science is where our biggest investments and bets have been and will be made moving forward," Chan, a pediatrician by training, wrote in a memo to staff last year. Zuckerberg made a similar point about the importance of GPUs in recruiting on a recent episode of The Information's TITV show. Meta is spending billions to build an AI division it calls Superintelligence Labs. "Historically, when I was recruiting people to different parts of the company, people are like, 'Okay, what's my scope going to be?'" the Meta CEO said. "Here, people say, 'I want the fewest number of people reporting to me and the most GPUs.'" Meta, of course, has significantly more GPUs than CZI. Zuckerberg has said the company will have 1.3 million GPUs for AI by the end of 2025. "Having basically the most compute per researcher is definitely a strategic advantage, not just for doing the work but for attracting the best people," he said. Read the original article on Business Insider Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
