CNBC’s Deirdre Bosa joins 'Money Movers' to discuss Meta's AI recruiting gamble.

The release of Open AI's ChatGPT has accelerated the development of artificial intelligence and warnings about its impact on society.

Rise of AI

Meta has officially brought on Alexander Wang, CEO of Scale AI, in a move described as a nontraditional acqui-hire. This strategy allows Meta to acquire key AI talent while avoiding regulatory scrutiny that has followed previous major acquisitions in the tech sector. Wang's transition is part of a broader trend where leading technology companies are investing heavily to secure top AI experts, often through creative hiring and partnership structures rather than full acquisitions.

The deal, valued at $14.3 billion, is reported to be the largest acqui-hire in the AI sector to date, though not all of that amount goes directly to Wang. Meta will gain a 49% stake in Scale AI, a company it has previously collaborated with on content moderation and data labeling. This move underscores the escalating value placed on AI talent and the lengths to which tech giants are willing to go to strengthen their positions in the rapidly evolving AI landscape.

Scale AI CEO departs for Meta in Zuckerberg’s latest AI gambit

Meta, now making that investment in scale AI official with CEO Alexander Wang, departing for a role at Meta. Deirdre Bosa has more on the news in today's Tech Check. It's a big one, Dee. It is a big one, Carl. Good morning. So that memo that Alexander Wang posted yesterday to X, it makes clear that this Meta deal is in fact another nontraditional acqui-hire. So it brings one of the most strategic players in AI inside Zuckerberg's tent while attempting to skirt regulators that are already pushing to break off past acquisitions, Instagram and WhatsApp. And they're also closely watching how big tech consolidates power in the AI era. And this also makes clear that the most sought after AI talent continues to fetch bigger and bigger dollar amounts. Here's what we're calling the Mount Rushmore of the AI talent wars. It starts with Demis Hassabis. More than a decade ago, Alphabet brought DeepMind for $400 million. That brought Hassabis into the company. Now he's the most visible and influential figure driving Google's most strategic work. That was in 2014, though, so that was a full acquisition and his lab, DeepMind, sits within Alphabet. Post-2022, ChatGPT is released, big tech scrutiny. It has been the era of nontraditional acqui-hires. Google's $2.7 billion deal with Noam Shazir's startup character AI, that left the company, but it brought Shazir back into the fold at Google. Then you have Microsoft. It did a similar thing with Mustafa Saliman and his startup, Inflection. OpenAI, of course, was bold enough to do a full acquisition, paying $6.5 billion for Johnny Ives' firm. And now Alex Wang is the most expensive acqui-hire yet, $14.3 billion. Now not all of it goes to him, but this is ultimately about Meta locking him in, buying credibility and access in one full swoop. Now early investors like Andreessen Horowitz, they can take a victory lap, and Meta gets 49% of a startup that it's been working with for years on content moderation, even before data labeling for its AI efforts. Now in this phase of the race, capital is a key advantage, of course, not just to build infrastructure and to power it, though, but absorbing talent as well. That is very clear. The question, though, now is when did these bets start paying off?

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Jerusalem

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Ukraine Invasion

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Scale AI CEO departs for Meta in Zuckerberg’s latest AI gambit

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Rise of AI