Meta tried to buy Ilya Sutskever's $32 billion AI startup, but is now planning to hire its CEO

In a bold move to bolster its artificial intelligence capabilities, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has shifted focus to Daniel Gross, the head of Ilya Sutskever's startup, Safe Superintelligence, and former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman. This strategy follows a substantial $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI, where Zuckerberg previously recruited founder Alexandr Wang. Sources indicate that Meta had attempted to acquire Safe Superintelligence earlier this year, a company that was valued at an impressive $32 billion during a funding round in April. Sutskever, who founded the startup only a year ago after leaving OpenAI, declined Meta's acquisition offer as well as a proposal to join the company, according to confidential sources. Following these unsuccessful negotiations, Zuckerberg initiated talks with Gross. Both Gross and Friedman are set to join Meta, contributing to projects under Wang's leadership. Additionally, Meta is expected to gain a stake in NFDG, the venture capital firm co-founded by Gross and Friedman. The Information was the first to report on Meta's intentions to bring these two executives on board. As the competition for AI talent reaches unprecedented levels, Zuckerberg's aggressive hiring strategy reflects a broader trend among tech giants. Companies like Meta, Google, and OpenAI are racing to develop powerful large language models and advance towards artificial general intelligence (AGI) — a form of AI that rivals human intelligence. Last week, Meta's investment in Scale AI not only secured Wang but also provided the company with a significant 49% stake in the startup. OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman, noted in a recent podcast that Meta has attempted to entice OpenAI employees with signing bonuses as high as $100 million, but their top talent has largely remained loyal. The hiring war extends beyond Meta and OpenAI, with other firms like Microsoft and Google also actively acquiring AI talent. Gross, known for his entrepreneurial spirit and investment background, previously founded the search engine Cue, which Apple acquired in 2013. He also played a critical role in developing machine learning at Apple, including work on Siri, before co-founding Safe Superintelligence with Sutskever. Meanwhile, Friedman, who has a history of successful startups, became GitHub's CEO after Microsoft's acquisition in 2018. As Meta continues to pursue exceptional talent in the AI field, questions remain about the future of NFDG's investment portfolio following this new partnership with Meta.