Meta Platforms(US:META) Hua Er Jie Jian Wen·2025-06-20 03:54Core Insights - Meta has made a significant investment of $14.3 billion in Scale AI, marking it as the second-largest deal in its history after the $19 billion acquisition of WhatsApp in 2014 [1] - Initially, Meta attempted to acquire Safe Superintelligence, founded by former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, which was valued at $32 billion during its funding round in April [1] - After the acquisition attempt failed, Meta shifted its strategy to recruit key personnel from Safe Superintelligence, specifically CEO Daniel Gross and former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman [2] Company Strategy - Meta's recruitment of Gross and Friedman is part of a "curved rescue" strategy to access core talent and technology resources without direct acquisition [3] - Gross has a notable background, having founded Cue, which was acquired by Apple, and later worked on machine learning and Siri development [2] - Friedman also has a strong profile, having served as CEO of GitHub post-acquisition by Microsoft and co-founding two startups [2] Industry Trends - The trend of high-value talent acquisition is not unique to Meta; OpenAI has also invested approximately $6.5 billion to recruit top talent, including iPhone designer Jony Ive [4] - The competition for AI talent is intense, with reports of Meta offering up to $100 million in signing bonuses to attract OpenAI employees [4][5] - OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman acknowledged the fierce competition, indicating that Meta views OpenAI as its primary competitor [5]