In a bold move to boost Meta’s artificial intelligence (AI) efforts, CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently tried to buy Safe Superintelligence (SSI), a startup co-founded by Ilya Sutskever, for $32 billion. However, the deal didn’t go through, and Meta is now focusing on hiring key people from the company instead. This story highlights the fierce competition in the AI world and Zuckerberg’s determination to keep Meta at the forefront.
Safe Superintelligence was started in June 2024 by Ilya Sutskever, a former chief scientist at OpenAI, along with Daniel Gross and Daniel Levy. The company aims to build safe and powerful AI systems, focusing on “superintelligence” that could match or surpass human intelligence. Just a year after its launch, SSI raised $2 billion in April 2025, giving it a valuation of $32 billion. With big investors like Google, Nvidia, and Andreessen Horowitz backing it, SSI has quickly become a major player in AI.
According to reports, Meta approached SSI earlier this year to buy the company, but Sutskever turned down the offer. He also rejected a personal job offer from Meta, choosing to keep SSI independent. Sources say Sutskever’s decision was not just about money but about maintaining control over SSI’s mission to develop safe AI without corporate pressure.
After the failed acquisition, Zuckerberg shifted his strategy. Instead of buying the company, Meta is now hiring SSI’s CEO, Daniel Gross, and Nat Friedman, a former GitHub CEO and co-founder of a venture fund called NFDG with Gross. Meta is also taking a stake in NFDG, which has invested in AI startups like Perplexity and Character.AI. Both Gross and Friedman are expected to work under Alexandr Wang, another recent Meta hire from Scale AI, as part of a $14.3 billion deal. These moves show Zuckerberg’s aggressive push to build a strong AI team.
This isn’t the first time Meta has gone after top AI talent. The company has been spending billions to catch up with rivals like OpenAI and Google. For example, Meta recently invested $14.3 billion in Scale AI and tried to buy Perplexity AI. OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, even said Meta offered signing bonuses as high as $100 million to lure his employees. This intense competition, often called an “AI talent war,” shows how critical AI is to the future of tech.
Zuckerberg’s big spending comes as Meta tries to recover from setbacks in its AI projects. Some of Meta’s AI models, like Llama 4 and Behemoth, have not performed as well as hoped compared to competitors. By bringing in experts like Gross, Friedman, and Wang, Zuckerberg hopes to turn things around and make Meta a leader in AI, especially in the race toward artificial general intelligence (AGI).
While Meta’s shareholders have stayed supportive so far, with the company’s stock up 17% this year, there’s pressure on Zuckerberg to deliver results. His past big bets, like buying Instagram and WhatsApp, paid off, but the AI race is tougher. Meanwhile, SSI continues its work independently, with offices in Silicon Valley and Tel Aviv, and a focus on safe AI development.
In the end, Zuckerberg’s failed $32 billion bid for SSI shows how high the stakes are in AI. Even though he didn’t get the company, his aggressive hiring shows Meta is ready to fight for a spot at the top of the AI world. As the race for superintelligence heats up, all eyes are on Meta to see if Zuckerberg’s big moves will pay off.