Latest news with #superintelligence
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg Just Assembled a "Super Intelligence Avengers" Team That Could Totally Change the Game in Artificial Intelligence (AI). Here's Why That Makes Meta a "Must-Own" AI Stock.
Key Points Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has recently gone on a spending binge in pursuit of "super intelligence." Over the past month-plus, Meta has poached top talent from other big artificial intelligence (AI) players with nine-figure offers. The company is also investing in massive Manhattan-sized AI superclusters to bolster the talent push. Will it work? These 10 stocks could mint the next wave of millionaires › Investors may be generally tracking the artificial intelligence wars (AI), with most of the "Magnificent Seven" companies spending hand over fist in a race to be the first to crack AI -- and all the financial benefits that come with it. But over the last couple of weeks, Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg has made truly massive moves, committing huge amounts of dollars to both talent and computing infrastructure that dwarf even the current super-expensive standard of today's AI leaders. The implications of the moves may have been comprehended by some, but may still be underestimated by the larger investment community. Zuck throws down the gauntlet Over the past month or so, Zuckerberg has: Purchased 49% of data-labeling leader Scale AI at a $28 billion valuation, bringing in Scale's CEO Alexandr Wang and top leadership. Hired top AI talent in addition to Wang to create a "Super-Intelligence Team" from several leading AI and tech rivals, totaling about 50 researchers, by offering multiples more than other companies, with some offers rumored to be as much as $200 million or more. Notable poached talent includes Nat Friedman, the former GitHub CEO; Daniel Gross, who was CEO and co-founder of SSI, Ilya Sustkever's current start-up (Sustkever was a co-founder of OpenAI); Ruoming Pang, the head of Apple's AI division; as well as Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov, and Xiaohua Zhai from OpenAI. On infrastructure investments, Zuckerberg also shed light on massive upcoming projects: In a Threads post, Zuckerberg said Meta was going to invest "hundreds of billions of dollars" in AI superclusters. This includes the industry's first 1GW supercluster, which Meta is calling Prometheus and should come online in 2026. Zuckerberg also said this will be just the first of multiple GW-plus superclusters, including Hyperion, which will eventually scale up to 5 GW over several years, and encompass a data center almost the size of Manhattan. How does all this spending pay off? One might wonder what spurred this spending binge from Zuckerberg, and whether it was an offensive or defensive move. The answer, perhaps not surprisingly, is likely both. Zuckerberg now says Meta is aiming for "super intelligence," which could be somewhat akin to what was formerly referred to as artificial general intelligence (AGI). The concept of super intelligence, and whether AI is capable of reaching such a thing, has been hotly debated. However, it appears that Zuckerberg now believes super intelligence is achievable, and may be reached within the next few years. In a recent interview with tech magazine The Information, Zuckerberg said: There is this big debate in the industry today. All right, is super intelligence going to be possible in three years, five years, seven years? But I don't think anyone knows the answer. I just think that we should bet and act as if it's going to be ready in the next two to three years. Zuckerberg also believes "super intelligence" may mean different things to Meta than it does to more enterprise-oriented Mag Seven companies. Whereas, say, Microsoft might use AI to automate many enterprise functions, leading to an increase in productivity, for Meta, Zuckerberg apparently has a vision of giving consumers "super intelligence" related to their everyday lives, the media they consume, and their social connections. Zuckerberg also made an interesting note in the interview that the high salaries are worth it, since the ultimate team will likely be small, between 50 and 70 people: I think that the physics of this is, you don't need a massive team to do this. You actually kind of want the smallest group of people who can fit the whole thing in their head. So there's just an absolute premium for the best and most talented people. This makes sense. The architecting of AI systems is very complex, and if a technician makes a wrong architectural choice along the way, that can affect the performance of the entire model. According to AI chip blog Semianalysis, Meta's recent large language model Llama 4 has been a disappointment, and the reasons were partly due to poor data labeling -- which the Scale AI acquisition should help with -- and a few poor architectural choices. Thus, it's perhaps no surprise that Zuckerberg feels investing in a smaller number of high-caliber engineers is the best path. The difference between a winning model and a disappointing model may come down to a few high-level decisions, so it makes sense that Zuckerberg would pay up for quality over quantity for Meta's new AI efforts. Another offensive aspect of this is that Meta has arguably more financial resources than its rivals, especially OpenAI, which is considered a start-up and losing tens of billions at the moment. Last year, Meta's "core" social media advertising business brought in a whopping $87.1 billion in operating income, somewhat offset by a $17.7 billion loss in its Reality Labs division. And that $87 billion is probably on track to reach close to $100 billion this year. Therefore, Meta has the ability to pay as much or more than its rivals, and by paying these types of astronomical salaries, it's raising the costs of employment for everybody -- OpenAI included. Zuckerberg continued: ... one of the benefits of reinforcement learning is it gives you a venue to, you know, potentially convert very large amounts of capital into a better and better service, and potentially a better service than other less well-funded or less bold competitors will be able to do so... I view that as a competitive advantage. If we can get this to work well, and that's why we are basically all in on this. We're building, you know, we're building multiple, multi-gigawatt data centers, and we can basically do this all funded from the cash flow of the company. But the move may also be defensive, and isn't without risks While the "all-in" spending binge from Zuckerberg is exciting, investors should also be wary of a few things. First, it appears Meta's AI super intelligence dream team will be essentially starting from scratch. This is likely due to Meta's recent efforts on its Llama 4 LLM coming up short of expectations, or at least falling further behind its other competitors than Zuckerberg would like. So, it appears Meta's latest attempt at leading AI is a bit of a bust, raising questions about the need to put all its chips into the pot, so to speak, at this moment. It has also been reported that Zuckerberg wasn't able to successfully acquire all the companies and talent that he wanted. In addition to Scale AI, Zuckerberg reportedly also wanted to acquire Mira Murati's Thinking Machines and Ilya Sustkever's SSI, but was rebuffed in both cases. It was also reported Zuckerberg extended billion-dollar offers to some of OpenAI's leadership team, but was also rebuffed. So, while Meta now has perhaps the most formidable AI "dream team" around, it isn't a "full" dream team necessarily. Finally, Meta has a history of throwing money at certain far-off ventures, without immediate tangible outcomes. Look no further than the Reality Labs segment, which is basically Zuckerberg's gambit to create the "next computing platform" of virtual reality goggles or glasses. Meta even changed its name from Facebook to Meta Platforms in 2021 to show its commitment to the effort. However, in 2024, three years later, that segment lost $17.7 billion, up from a $16.1 billion loss in 2023. Finally, Zuckerberg didn't really spell out what he exactly meant by an everyday consumer "super intelligence." While both the Reality Labs division and the concept of consumer super-intelligence may one day come to fruition, it's not assured -- even with Zuckerberg assembling an AI "dream team." So while this past month's spending is exciting, look for investors to get impatient if Meta's spending goes up without a corresponding growth in revenue. And yet, the spending makes Meta a must-own stock If one of today's current tech leaders reaches "super intelligence" before the others, it has the potential to disrupt the balance of power among today's Magnificent Seven. That's why any young person or growth investor should have exposure to Meta and its rivals, in spite of their massive AI spending today. If and when one of these companies "cracks the code" before others, it's possible the Magnificent Seven could become the Magnificent Three, Two... or even One. With his moves over the past month, Zuckerberg is investing heavily to make sure Meta is one of the leading candidates to become that "one." Investors should keep their ears out for more information when Meta reports earnings at the end of the month on July 30. Don't miss this second chance at a potentially lucrative opportunity Ever feel like you missed the boat in buying the most successful stocks? Then you'll want to hear this. On rare occasions, our expert team of analysts issues a 'Double Down' stock recommendation for companies that they think are about to pop. If you're worried you've already missed your chance to invest, now is the best time to buy before it's too late. And the numbers speak for themselves: Nvidia: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2009, you'd have $448,664!* Apple: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2008, you'd have $39,870!* Netflix: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2004, you'd have $687,149!* Right now, we're issuing 'Double Down' alerts for three incredible companies, available when you join , and there may not be another chance like this anytime soon.*Stock Advisor returns as of July 14, 2025 Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Billy Duberstein and/or his clients have positions in Apple, Meta Platforms, and Microsoft. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Apple, Meta Platforms, and Microsoft. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg Just Assembled a "Super Intelligence Avengers" Team That Could Totally Change the Game in Artificial Intelligence (AI). Here's Why That Makes Meta a "Must-Own" AI Stock. was originally published by The Motley Fool Sign in to access your portfolio
Khaleej Times
3 days ago
- Business
- Khaleej Times
Meta's Zuckerberg pledges hundreds of billions for AI data centres
Mark Zuckerberg said on Monday that Meta Platforms would spend hundreds of billions of dollars to build several massive artificial intelligence (AI) data centres for superintelligence, intensifying his pursuit of a technology he has chased with a talent war for top engineers. The social media giant (META.O) is among the large tech companies that have struck high-profile deals and doled out multi-million-dollar pay packages in recent months to fast-track work on machines that could outthink humans on many tasks. Its first multi-gigawatt data centre, dubbed Prometheus, is expected to come online in 2026, while another, called Hyperion, will be able to scale up to 5 gigawatts over the coming years, Zuckerberg said in a post on his Threads social media platform. 'We're building multiple more titan clusters as well. Just one of these covers a significant part of the footprint of Manhattan,' the billionaire CEO said. He also pointed to a report from industry publication SemiAnalysis that Meta was on track to be the first AI lab to bring a gigawatt-plus supercluster online. Zuckerberg touted the strength in the company's core advertising business to justify the massive spending amid investor concerns on whether the expenditure would pay off. 'We have the capital from our business to do this,' he said. Market value Meta shares were trading 1 per cent higher. The stock has risen more than 20 per cent so far this year. The company, which generated nearly $165 billion (Dh606 billion) in revenue last year, reorganised its AI efforts last month under a division called Superintelligence Labs after setbacks for its open-source Llama 4 model and key staff departures. It is betting that the division would generate new cash flows from the Meta AI app, image-to-video ad tools and smart glasses. Top members of the unit have considered abandoning Behemoth, the company's most powerful open-source AI model, in favour of developing a closed alternative, the New York Times reported separately on Monday. D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria said Meta was investing aggressively in AI as the technology has already boosted its ad business by allowing it to sell more ads and at higher prices. But at this scale, the investment is more oriented to the long-term competition to have the leading AI model, which could take time to materialise, Luria said. In recent weeks, Zuckerberg has personally led an aggressive talent raid for the Meta Superintelligence Labs, which will be led by former Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang and ex-GitHub chief Nat Friedman, after Meta invested $14.3 billion (Dh52.5 billion) in Scale. Meta had raised its 2025 capital expenditure to between $64 billion (Dh235 billion) and $72 billion (Dh264 billion) in April, aiming to bolster the company's position against rivals OpenAI and Google.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Meta Poaches Apple's Top AI Exec: Where Does This Leave Apple Intelligence?
Meta has been hunting for top AI talent over the past few months, and its latest target is Ruoming Pang, the leader of Apple's 100-person foundation models team. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg offered Pang a pay package worth tens of millions of dollars, according to Bloomberg. In recent weeks, Zuckerberg has been using this tactic to poach AI talent from Meta's main rivals, including OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google. Meta also named Alexandr Wang, co-founder of ScaleAI, as its new chief AI officer. The new hires are all joining Meta's superintelligence group, which aims to create an AI that is smarter and more capable than humans, according to The New York Times. Pang is a tech industry veteran who joined Apple from Alphabet in 2021. With his departure, Zhifeng Chen will now run Apple's foundation models team. Apple's overall AI strategy falls under Craig Federighi, Apple's SVP of software engineering, and Mike Rockwell, who took over the Siri team in March. It's unclear how Pang's departure will affect the company's AI product roadmap. The foundation models that Pang oversaw are the engine behind Apple Intelligence. At WWDC, the company open-sourced them for developers for the first time, but the company seems unsatisfied with their performance for its own products. It's now reportedly considering using models from Anthropic or OpenAI for the new Siri. Will Pang's departure speed up that process? Apple CEO Tim Cook is probably not happy right now. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman certainly wasn't pleased when Meta pillaged its payroll a few weeks ago. Both companies are likely scrambling to stop the brain drain to cash-flush Meta and retain their talent. "I feel a visceral feeling right now, as if someone has broken into our home and stolen something," OpenAI chief research officer Mark Chen wrote in a memo to employees on June 28, Wired reports. "We're recalibrating comp, and we're scoping out creative ways to recognize and reward top talent." OpenAI also recently boosted its security to protect its IP from its Chinese rivals. It added fingerprint scans, enhanced vetting of staff, and hired military experts to protect important data, The Financial Times reports.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Not One, But Several: Zuckerberg Eyes More Mega Data Centers For AI
In his pursuit to create 'AI superintelligence,' Meta's CEO Mark Zuckerberg is teasing plans to build not one, but several energy-hungry data centers dedicated to AI training. Back in January, Zuckerberg mentioned creating a data center so large it would cover large parts of Manhattan island if placed in New York City. On Monday, he indicated Facebook's parent company Meta has been expanding on those plans by investing 'hundreds of billions of dollars into compute to build superintelligence.' The resulting data centers will not only feature hundreds of thousands of AI-focused GPUs, but also require over 1,000 megawatts of electricity, or what amounts to a gigawatt. 'We're actually building several multi-GW (gigawatt) clusters,' Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post. 'We're calling the first one Prometheus and it's coming online in '26. We're also building Hyperion, which will be able to scale up to 5GW over several years.' But Zuckerberg isn't just settling for two mega data centers. In the same post, he wrote: 'We're building multiple more titan clusters as well. Just one of these covers a significant part of the footprint of Manhattan.' For perspective, the world's leading supercomputer, El Capitan, uses only 30 megawatts, or about three times the amount of power used in the neighboring city of Livermore, California. Meanwhile, Elon Musk's xAI 'Colossus' data center in Memphis has been estimated to use 150 megawatts, although that's bound to grow as the facility expands. Zuckerberg's post is the latest sign of how aggressively the largest tech companies are racing to build AI that promises to surpass human intelligence. In addition to the data center push, Meta has been offering huge compensation packages, at up to over $100 million, to poach the top AI researchers from companies including OpenAI and Apple. Meta's investment will raise questions about whether the bet pays off and if it takes an environmental toll. Zuckerberg didn't mention how Meta plans on powering these upcoming mega data centers. But according to the research firm SemiAnalysis, the company is preparing to build natural gas plants to power the Prometheus data center, which is being built in Ohio.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Zuckerberg is pouring billions into plans for 'personal superintelligence'
Meta (META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg is plowing billions into his company's AI expansion efforts with the goal of developing so-called superintelligence, or AI that can surpass human capabilities. In a Threads post on Monday, Zuckerberg revealed plans to spend hundreds of billions of dollars building several massive AI data centers across the US, including one that will come online as soon as next year. Another data center, called Hyperion, will eventually scale up to support up to 5 gigawatts, or 5 billion watts, of capacity. A gigawatt of electricity can power roughly 800,000 homes. It's not just data centers, though. Zuckerberg is also splashing money on high-profile AI hires. In June, Meta invested $14.3 billion in Scale AI and hired its CEO Alexandr Wang. The company also hired former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman and Safe Superintelligence CEO Daniel Gross and poached Apple's head of AI foundation models, Ruoming Pang, according to Bloomberg. According to the Wall Street Journal, Meta also snagged OpenAI ( researchers Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov, and Xiaohua Zhai. All of this comes as Meta looks to capture the lead in the AI wars after the company was forced to put its Llama 4 Behemoth model on ice while it works to bring its functionality up to par with frontier models from the likes of OpenAI and Google. 'Mr. Zuckerberg believes it's very important to have one of the leading models,' D.A. Davidson head of technology research Gil Luria told Yahoo Finance. 'He's rebuilt the team so he has the talent to do it, and he's going to continue to invest in the compute capacity so he has the compute capacity to achieve it.' For Meta, it's a gamble the company can't afford to lose. A more personal superintelligence Meta's AI efforts differ significantly from those at OpenAI, Anthropic ( Perplexity ( xAI, and even Microsoft (MSFT) and Google (GOOG, GOOGL). Rather than using its technology to explore questions about the universe or power enterprise and cloud-based software services, Zuckerberg said the company is angling to make its AI platform a kind of 'personal superintelligence.' During an interview with The Information's TITV, Zuckerberg explained that Meta's personal superintelligence will solve simpler problems for users on a daily basis. 'Our mission with the lab is to deliver personal superintelligence to everyone in the world, so that way we can put that power in every individual's hand. It's a different thing than what the other labs are doing. This is going to be something that is the most important technology in our lives.' It's a vague statement, with no real solid examples of how personal superintelligence will impact our daily lives or how we'll use it more broadly. But Zuckerberg did offer that the technology will power Meta's recommendation engine, advertising capabilities for customers, and, importantly, the company's smart glasses software. 'I continue to think that that's going to be the best form factor for AI, because, you know, they can see what you see and hear what you hear, and you can talk to them throughout the day,' Zuckerberg said. Meta is banking on smart glasses as the next major piece of consumer hardware after the smartphone. The company is developing self-contained smart glasses that don't require a smartphone to power apps or other software. The move would allow Meta to break free of Apple's and Google's respective app stores, giving it more control over its products, a long-term goal of the social media giant. The spending is all part of the plan In order for Meta to get to that point, though, it needs to spend a lot of cash — something it's doing with aplomb. 'Overall, I think it just shows how in demand AI engineering talent is and how hard it is to secure and keep good talent,' Creative Strategies principal analyst Ben Jajarin told Yahoo Finance. 'The AI talent wars is a fierce battle, and honestly, it is hard to see this going away or slowing down anytime soon," he said. "Ultimately, other than money, I think it will be hard to keep talent as well. So it's possible we will see a lot of churn as well.' The spending on talent comes after as Meta looks to develop future cutting-edge AI models following its Llama 4 issues. 'Last year, when they introduced the Llama 3 model, they had one of the top frontier models at the time,' Luria said. 'However, by the time they got around to Llama 4 it was not successful, and it's not even one of the best models," he added. "And so Mr. Zuckerberg decided that it was essential for him to redouble his effort and remake the team leading the AI effort at Meta, which he has done in an unprecedentedly aggressive manner over the last few weeks.' Now Zuckerberg has to ensure all of that spending pays off and that his vision of a more personal superintelligence comes to fruition. Email Daniel Howley at dhowley@ Follow him on X/Twitter at @DanielHowley. Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
