Who is Alexandr Wang? The 28-year-old hired by Meta for $14 billion to head their Superintelligence Labs
Alexandr Wang now serves as Chief AI Officer and Chief Architect of Meta’s superintelligence programme.
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Meta has doubling down on its ambitions in artificial intelligence. In one of the tech industry’s most high-profile appointments this year, Mark Zuckerberg has tapped Alexandr Wang, the 28-year-old founder of Scale AI, to head Meta’s Superintelligence Labs — the company’s newly formed AI division.
The move follows Meta’s ongoing efforts to secure top AI talent as it competes with Google, Microsoft, and Apple in the race to develop advanced artificial intelligence systems. Wang, who was hired earlier this year, now serves as Chief AI Officer and Chief Architect of Meta’s superintelligence programme.
Meta has reportedly invested an estimated $14.3 billion into Wang’s start-up Scale AI, signalling the company’s deep commitment to the partnership. Under Wang’s leadership, Meta’s Superintelligence Labs will oversee all AI research, product development, and infrastructure efforts across the organisation.
Restructuring Meta’s AI operations
Since his appointment, Wang has begun a major reorganisation of Meta’s AI division, splitting it into four specialised groups to sharpen focus and improve efficiency.
According to an internal memo obtained by Bloomberg, Wang wrote, “Superintelligence is coming, and in order to take it seriously, we need to organise around the key areas that will be critical to reach it — research, product and infra.”
The restructuring reflects Meta’s strategic shift towards long-term AI research and foundational model development, aligning its efforts with rivals like OpenAI and Anthropic.
From MIT dropout to AI billionaire
Wang’s rise to prominence has been nothing short of meteoric. Born in New Mexico to Chinese immigrant physicists, he dropped out of MIT at 19 to launch Scale AI in 2016 alongside co-founder Lucy Guo. The pair joined a startup accelerator programme and famously worked from air mattresses while building their company.
Scale AI quickly gained recognition for providing labelled data at massive scale — a critical component for training modern AI models. The company’s technology manages thousands of gig workers via platforms like Rotasks and Outlier, enabling clients to develop large, high-performing datasets.
By May 2024, Scale AI was valued at nearly $14 billion, backed by major investors including Nvidia, Amazon, and Meta. Wang’s success made him one of the youngest billionaires in Silicon Valley, with deep ties to figures such as OpenAI’s Sam Altman and influential U.S. lawmakers in Washington D.C.
Wang now faces the task of translating his data-centric expertise into Meta’s next chapter of AI evolution, as the company bets big on superintelligence — the next frontier beyond large language models.
