Meta hires Safe Superintelligence execs after CEO Ilya Sutskever rejects $32B acquisition offer

Less than a week after Meta hired Scale AI founder and CEO Alexandr Wang as part of a $14.3 billion deal, Mark Zuckerberg has turned his attention to another high-profile AI startup: Safe Superintelligence, CNBC reported on Thursday, citing sources familiar with the matter.

Sources say Meta has now brought on Daniel Gross and Nat Friedman, two key figures at Safe Superintelligence and co-founders of the venture firm NFDG.

Meta Tried to Buy Safe Superintelligence

The move follows Meta’s failed attempt earlier this year to acquire the startup outright for a reported $32 billion. CEO Ilya Sutskever, who co-founded Safe Superintelligence after leaving OpenAI, declined the offer, as well as Meta’s direct hiring effort.

“Earlier this year, sources said, Meta tried to acquire Safe Superintelligence, which was reportedly valued at $32 billion in a fundraising round in April. Sutskever, who just launched the startup a year ago, shortly after leaving OpenAI, rebuffed Meta’s efforts, as well as the company’s attempt to hire him, said the sources, who asked not to be named because the information is confidential, CNBC reported.

Once those talks ended, Zuckerberg shifted focus to Gross. Negotiations began, and soon after, both Gross and Friedman agreed to join Meta. The duo will reportedly work under Wang’s leadership, and Meta is expected to take a stake in their venture firm, NFDG.

The Information was first to report on the hiring.

A Meta spokesperson said the company “will share more about our superintelligence effort and the great people joining this team in the coming weeks.”

Gross brings years of experience as an AI investor and entrepreneur. He previously founded the search startup Cue, which Apple acquired in 2013, and later helped lead machine learning at Apple, including work on Siri. He also spent time as a partner at Y Combinator.

Friedman, best known for leading GitHub after Microsoft’s acquisition, has co-founded multiple startups and built a reputation as a top operator and investor. Through NFDG, he and Gross have backed companies like Coinbase, Figma, CoreWeave, Perplexity, and Character.AI, according to PitchBook. It’s still unclear what happens to those investments now that Meta is involved.

The hires are part of Zuckerberg’s broader push to stay competitive in the AI arms race. Meta’s $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI last week landed the company a 49% stake and brought in several top engineers alongside Wang.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, speaking on his brother’s podcast Uncapped, said Meta has tried to lure away his team with signing bonuses as high as $100 million. “None of our best people have decided to take them up on that,” Altman said. “Their current AI efforts have not worked as well as they have hoped and I respect being aggressive and continuing to try new things.”

Meta didn’t respond to a request for comment on Altman’s remarks.

The competition to secure AI talent has grown intense. Microsoft spent $650 million last year acquiring team members from Inflection AI, including DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman. Google pulled Character.AI’s founders back into the fold in a multibillion-dollar deal. OpenAI dropped $6.5 billion on hiring Jony Ive and acquiring his hardware startup, io.

Zuckerberg’s strategy is clear: if he can’t buy the company, he’ll bring in the people building it. And with Gross and Friedman on board, Meta’s bet on AI just got a lot deeper.

Meanwhile, SSI is setting up shop in both Silicon Valley and Tel Aviv and recently signed a lease in Midtown Tel Aviv. No word yet on who will run the local operation, but the company did bring on Dr. Yair Carmon, a well-regarded machine learning researcher from Tel Aviv University. Carmon earned his PhD at Stanford and has a solid track record in academic circles.

Backers of the first funding round include heavyweights like Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and DST Global, Yuri Milner’s investment outfit.