Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly disclosed the formation of a Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL) team, designed to boost the company’s AI efforts while competing against rivals OpenAI and Google.

CNBC published a memo released by Zuckerberg this week which provided details on the creation of MSL.

Zuckerberg tapped former Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang to lead the MSL team. Wang, who is also chief AI officer for Meta, was CEO of Scale AI prior to Meta Platforms making a $14.3 billion investment in the company last month.

“Alex and I have worked together for several years, and I consider him to be the most impressive founder of his generation,” Zuckerberg stated in the internal memo. “He has a clear sense of the historic importance of superintelligence, and as co-founder and CEO he built Scale AI into a fast-growing company involved in the development of almost all leading models across the industry.”

Former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman and various employees and engineers from OpenAI, Anthropic and Google Deepmind also boarded MSL.

Zuckerberg explained in the memo MSL will host the company’s foundation models, products, and Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) teams, “as well as a new lab focused on developing the next generation of our models”.

“I’m optimistic that this new influx of talent and parallel approach to model development will set us up to deliver on the promise of personal superintelligence for everyone,” he stated.

Zuckerberg made a concerted effort to poach engineers and employees from rival AI companies over the past month.  Bloomberg previously reported he is personally recruiting around 50 people for a new team to spur the company’s artificial general intelligence (AGI) scheme.

With Zuckerberg in hot pursuit of AI talent, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stated during a YouTube podcast on 17 June that his staff were approached by Meta with offers of $100 million signing bonuses and even larger compensation packages.

The Financial Times reported on 1 July OpenAI told employees it is looking at creative ways to recognise and reward top talent following the departure of key employees.

Zuckerberg has spoken openly about his company’s AI aspirations. In January he stated the company plans capex of $60 billion to $65 billion in 2025 as part of a plan to broaden its AI infrastructure.