Mark Zuckerberg announces launch of Meta Superintelligence Labs

Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has announced the launch of Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL), a new AI unit intended to position the company at the forefront of artificial general intelligence development.

The unit will bring together Meta’s existing teams working on foundation models including the open-source Llama model and its Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) division. It will also launch a new lab focused on what Zuckerberg described as “the next generation” of models.

MSL will be led by Alexandr Wang, former chief executive of Scale AI, who joins Meta as chief AI officer.

He will work alongside Nat Friedman, former GitHub CEO and a partner in the AI venture capital scene, who will oversee product and applied research efforts.

The announcement, made via an internal memo obtained by CNBC, comes as Meta accelerates its recruitment drive amid intense competition with OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft for top AI talent.

The company recently hired Wang and several colleagues as part of a $14.3 billion investment in AI infrastructure. It also recruited Friedman and Daniel Gross, both previously involved with Safe Superintelligence, the AI venture co-founded by OpenAI’s Ilya Sutskever.

In his memo, Zuckerberg said the emergence of superintelligence marked “the beginning of a new era for humanity,” and that Meta was “fully committed” to leading in its development.

“Meta is uniquely positioned to deliver superintelligence to the world,” he added, citing its scale, infrastructure, and experience in global product deployment.

The new division will include high-profile hires from leading labs such as OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Anthropic.

Zuckerberg also highlighted Meta’s roadmap for Llama 4.1 and 4.2, which are already integrated across Meta platforms and used by more than a billion people monthly.

Alongside this, the company is initiating work on its next set of frontier models, with a “small, talent-dense” team still in formation.

The creation of MSL signals Meta’s strategic intent to move beyond consumer-facing AI assistants and invest in foundational AI infrastructure.

The announcement also reinforces Zuckerberg’s vision of “personal superintelligence for everyone”—a competitive stake in the rapidly evolving global AI landscape.

Zuckerberg concluded his note by hinting at more talent announcements in the coming weeks, describing the effort as “a new influx of talent and a parallel approach to model development.”