Zuckerberg brings on Gross and Friedman after failed Safe Superintelligence bid
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has escalated his multibillion-dollar AI hiring spree by securing two major figures in the artificial intelligence world: Daniel Gross and Nat Friedman. The move follows Meta’s failed attempt to acquire Safe Superintelligence, a startup founded by former OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever and valued at $32 billion as of April.
While Sutskever declined both Meta’s acquisition offer and a personal recruitment effort, the company pivoted quickly. Sources say Zuckerberg began negotiations with Gross shortly after and ultimately brought both Gross and Friedman into Meta. The two will now work under Scale AI’s Alexandr Wang, who recently joined Meta as part of a $14.3 billion investment that gave the company a 49% stake in Scale AI.
Inside the Gross-Friedman deal
Gross and Friedman lead venture firm NFDG, which will now be partially owned by Meta. While Meta has not disclosed specific terms, the move marks another strategic effort to consolidate top-tier AI talent and resources. Meta confirmed that more details about its “superintelligence” plans and incoming talent will be announced in the coming weeks.
Gross previously founded search engine Cue (acquired by Apple), held senior roles in Apple’s AI division, and helped develop Siri. He also spent time at Y Combinator before launching Safe Superintelligence. Friedman led GitHub as CEO following its acquisition by Microsoft and has co-founded multiple startups. NFDG’s portfolio includes Coinbase, Figma, CoreWeave, Perplexity and Character.ai.
Rising competition for AGI leadership
The AI talent war has intensified, with Meta, OpenAI, Google and Microsoft all racing toward artificial general intelligence (AGI). OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently claimed Meta has offered signing bonuses up to $100 million to poach OpenAI talent. While Altman insists no top employees have accepted, he acknowledged Meta as a leading competitor.
Other high-stakes moves include OpenAI’s $6.5 billion deal with Jony Ive, Google’s re-hiring of Character.ai’s founders, and Microsoft’s $650 million acquisition of talent from Inflection AI. With Gross and Friedman now onboard, Meta aims to reboot its AI strategy and close the innovation gap with rivals.
