Meta has hired Shengjia Zhao, a co-creator of ChatGPT and former OpenAI lead scientist, as chief scientist of its newly launched Superintelligence Labs.
The move is a strategic escalation in the ongoing AI talent war.
It signals CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s resolve to make Meta a dominant force in the artificial general intelligence (AGI) race. Zhao joins Alexandr Wang, Scale AI’s founder, who now serves as Meta’s Chief AI Officer.
The announcement comes as Meta aggressively recruits top researchers from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Anthropic to build what Zuckerberg calls “the most elite team in AI.” The Superintelligence Labs division is central to Meta’s long-term AGI ambitions, and operates separately from its original research unit, FAIR.
Why It Matters: Meta’s recruitment of Zhao and the broader AI hiring spree shows how high the stakes have risen in the race to build general-purpose AI. It’s a calculated shift of billions in capital and top-tier talent to reorient Meta around a future powered by superintelligence. This arms race isn’t happening in isolation: OpenAI, for example, is simultaneously moving into hardware via a $6.5 billion acquisition led by Sam Altman and Jony Ive, exemplifying a broader industry trend toward vertically integrated AI platforms.
- Zhao’s Strategic Role at Meta: Shengjia Zhao, credited with co-creating ChatGPT and leading OpenAI’s work on GPT-4 and synthetic data, has been tapped to lead Meta’s newly formed Superintelligence Labs. Zuckerberg says Zhao will “set the research agenda and scientific direction,” working directly with him and Alexandr Wang to build AGI-grade systems.
- Superintelligence Labs: Meta’s AI Redesign: After an underwhelming reception to Llama 4, Meta created Superintelligence Labs to concentrate its most ambitious AI research under a new organizational structure. The lab has already recruited multiple senior researchers from OpenAI, DeepMind, and Anthropic, lured in part by multimillion-dollar pay packages and the promise of open-source innovation.
- OpenAI’s Hardware Bet with Ive: While Meta focuses on research-heavy software development, OpenAI has completed a $6.5 billion acquisition of io Products Inc., a startup co-founded by designer Jony Ive. The goal: develop AI-native hardware that’s personal, seamless, and deeply integrated. Though the project was briefly stalled by a legal dispute, OpenAI has reintroduced it under a new brand and is now full speed ahead on prototyping for a 2026 release.
- A Crossfire of Poaching and Rebuilding: The Meta–OpenAI rivalry has become personal. Meta has poached talent aggressively, reportedly offering bonuses as high as $100 million, while OpenAI has countered by hiring engineers from Tesla, xAI, and even Meta itself. With fewer than 1,000 people worldwide able to build frontier AI models, the battle for elite minds has become the industry’s defining bottleneck.
- The Long Game: Platforms, Legacy, and Market Power: Analysts say Zuckerberg’s pursuit of superintelligence reflects a desire to own a foundational platform for the next computing era. After missing out on mobile operating systems, Meta is betting that controlling AI infrastructure, software and potentially hardware, can reposition it beyond social media. Likewise, if OpenAI’s hardware bet with Jony Ive succeeds, it could mark a shift away from third-party platforms like iOS and Android and usher in an era of AI-native consumer devices.
Go Deeper -> Meta names ChatGPT co-creator as chief scientist of Superintelligence Lab – Reuters
Meta is shelling out big bucks to get ahead in AI. Here’s who it’s hiring – CNN
OpenAI hires 4 engineers from Tesla, xAI after Meta poaches its talent – Money Control
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