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Mark Zuckerberg could be making major moves into the realms of artificial intelligence, with Meta reportedly shelling out a not-so-small fortune of just under $15 billion just to secure its latest hire.
Having boomed from the early days of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg is now the overlord of Meta, which has grown to include the social media platform, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Zuckerberg is currently the world's third-richest man, and while he has an impressive $242.3 billion in the bank, spending $15 billion just to get one person on the team must make them a pretty special guy. But who is Alexandr Wang, and why is he so important to the future of Meta?
As seems to be the case with most things in the tech world these days, the appointment of Alexandr Wang is all to do with artificial intelligence. Wang is known as the co-founder of Scale AI, with Reuters reporting that Meta has invested $14.3 billion in a 49% stake of the data labeling startup. Wang is said to be influential in Meta's AI future, with a statement from the company confirming his appointment but failing to disclose the deal's financial terms: "We will deepen the work we do together producing data for AI models and Alexandr Wang will join Meta to work on our superintelligence efforts."
A separate source says Wang is poised to lead a new superintelligence unit, although Meta didn't immediately respond to questions.
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With Zuckerberg pushing heavily into AI in 2025, Wang is tipped to lead the 50-person team and rival the likes of Google and OpenAI's AI ventures. Writing to Scale employees, the company co-founder said: "I started this company right out of freshman year of MIT and never looked back. I wouldn’t change a minute of it."
The 28-year-old Wang dropped out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to found Scale, and quickly became known as one of Silicon Valley's most promising young minds after he worked as a software engineer at wealth management company, Addepar. At the age of just 24, Wang became the youngest self-made billionaire in the world, and in April 2025, Forbes estimated his net worth to sit at $3.6 billion.
Importantly, Wang has developed relationships with the likes of OpenAI's Sam Altman, secured the federal government as a major client, and testified in front of a House Armed Services subcommittee hearing about the challenges and potential solutions the government could face when adopting AI.
After raising $1 billion last year from investors like Amazon and Meta, Wang said the idea of leaving was originally 'unimaginable'. He went on to say: "But as I spent time truly considering it, I realized this was a deeply unique moment, not just for me, but for Scale as well."
Scale says the deal values it at $29 billion, with Chief Strategy Officer Jason Droege stepping up as interim CEO. Some of Scale's 1,500 employees will follow Wang to Meta, although he's due to remain on the board and Meta apparently won't be taking a seat.
As for his $14.3 billion price tag, this comes as Meta's second-largest ever investment following its 2014 buyout of WhatsApp.
