Latest news with #Meta
West Australian
38 minutes ago
- Business
- West Australian
THE ECONOMIST: Mark Zuckerberg is spending megabucks on an AI hiring spree for Meta to unseat ChatGPT
When Mark Zuckerberg decided to launch his quest for the metaverse in 2021, he threw fistfuls of cash at the effort. Meta's boss is now repeating the act, this time with generative artificial intelligence. Hot on the heels of what may be the world's most expensive acquihire — a $US14.3 billion ($22b) deal to buy 49 per cent of Scale AI, a data-labelling firm whose main asset is Alexandr Wang, its 28-year-old founder — people close to the matter say Mr Zuckerberg is planning to offer more than $US1b combined for two of Silicon Valley's hottest AI brain boxes, who would work under Mr Wang. It marks the start of a reset of Meta's generative-AI ambitions. Meta has made no comment, but if the deal goes through Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross, entrepreneurs and partners in a venture-capital (VC) firm called NFDG, will work in Meta's 'superintelligence' unit under Mr Wang, one of America's youngest self-made billionaires. The word 'superintelligence' is somewhat misleading. Rather than ground-breaking AI research, the team is expected to focus on developing new AI products for Meta, some of whose recent efforts, including its latest Llama model and the Meta AI chatbot, have disappointed. Someone who knows all three men calls the trio 'the avengers'. He reckons they will have huge additional sums at their disposal to hire top AI researchers in order to unseat OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT, as the dominant generative-AI firm. 'They're going to go big,' he says. Indeed, there appear to be few limits on what Meta is prepared to spend. On June 17 Sam Altman, the boss of OpenAI, said on a podcast that Meta was offering signing bonuses of $US100m to poach his staff. Another person close to the situation says Mr Zuckerberg sought to hire Ilya Sutskever, the brains behind ChatGPT and co-founder of Safe Superintelligence (SSI), another hot AI startup, to work at Meta, though he was unsuccessful. 'He is throwing insane amounts of money at people,' the person said. The gambit shows Mr Zuckerberg's continued willingness to make mighty, long-term bets to reinvent his firm, even if his foray into the metaverse has been a costly flop. 'This is very Zuckerbergian to do these big, loud stunts just to prove how committed he is,' says Eric Seufert, an independent tech analyst. And while the sums are big, they may not be as reckless as some pundits argued when reports surfaced that Meta was buying its stake in Scale AI, considering how much of Meta's $US1.7t market value is riding on its success in AI. The acquisitions also involve people with close personal ties and shared ideals. Mr Friedman, former boss of GitHub, a software-development platform owned by Microsoft, is friends with Mr Zuckerberg. He is part of Meta's Advisory Group, which provides guidance to the company. And, like Mr Zuckerberg, he is a lover of ancient Rome. He and Mr Gross helped launch a contest called the Vesuvius Challenge to decode scrolls buried in Herculaneum after Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79AD. Mr Friedman and Mr Gross are savvy AI investors. Some call their VC firm the AI equivalent of Andreessen Horowitz, a Silicon Valley juggernaut born out of the dotcom boom. Mr Friedman invested in Scale AI and is close to Mr Wang. Mr Gross is a co-founder of Mr Sutskever's SSI, which was recently valued at $US32b less than a year after its birth. It is not clear what will happen to NFDG. People who know the two say that joining Meta appeals not only for the generous terms, but also the excitement of working for an AI heavyweight and the money and computing power it will put at their disposal. 'This is the tech battle of our time,' says one person close to the pair. Mr Zuckerberg intends to win .
CNBC
2 hours ago
- Business
- CNBC
CNBC Daily Open: Uncertainty around Israel-Iran conflict put investors on edge
The conflict between Israel and Iran is intensifying, with both countries not backing down from strikes and their leaders continuing to issue heated rhetoric. The prospect of the United States potentially joining the fray — which Russia warned would cause "a terrible spiral of escalation" — is putting the world on a knife's edge. That unease is reflected in the markets. While U.S. exchanges were closed Thursday for a holiday, futures retreated in the evening local time and oil prices jumped during the U.S. trading session. Across the Atlantic, travel and leisure stocks suffered the most as the Middle East conflict cast a shadow over international aviation. At the Paris Air Show, however, aircraft manufacturers are still booking billions in orders. Airbus had secured more than $20 billion in deals as of Thursday, according to Reuters calculations. That said, those encouraging numbers may not reflect immediate optimism about the global economy or geopolitics — aircrafts take years to deliver, and both Airbus and Boeing have a backlog of more than 8,000 and 5,000 aircrafts respectively. Until investors get a clearer sense of whether the U.S. will launch strikes on Iran, markets aren't likely to find solid ground.U.S. futures slip and oil jumpsU.S. futures slipped Thursday evening stateside. Regular trading in the U.S. was closed for the Juneteenth holiday. Meanwhile, oil prices for both U.S. crude oil and international benchmark Brent rose roughly 3% during the U.S. trading session after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to intensify attacks on Iran. Europe's regional Stoxx 600 lost 0.83%, with travel and leisure stocks falling the most. Meta tried to buy OpenAI co-founder's startupEarlier this year, Meta tried to acquire Safe Superintelligence, the artificial intelligence startup launched by OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever, according to sources familiar with the matter. Sutskever turned down Meta and its attempt to hire him, the sources said. But Daniel Gross, the startup's CEO, and former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman will join Meta as part of Mark Zuckerberg's deal with NFDG, a venture capital firm both men run. Inflation in Japan at its highest in two yearsJapan's core inflation rate climbed to 3.7% in May, the highest since January 2023. The figure, which excludes fresh food costs, was higher than the 3.6% expected by economists polled by Reuters, and April's reading of 3.5%. The Bank of Japan bank held rates at 0.5% after its monetary policy meeting earlier this week. Separately, Japan's GDP shrank 0.2% quarter on quarter in the three months ended March. Airbus stole the show in ParisAirbus dominated the order books at the Paris Air Show. The European aircraft manufacturer had racked up nearly $21 billion of orders as of Thursday morning, per a Reuters calculation. That included 132 firm orders on Monday, from customers including Saudi leasing firm AviLease, Japan's ANA and Poland's LOT, versus 41 for Boeing and 15 for Brazil's Embraer, according to a tally by aviation advisory IBA. Bank of England holds interest ratesThe Bank of England kept its key interest rate on hold at 4.25% during its Thursday meeting, with economists expecting the central bank to wait until August before it cuts again. Six out of nine of the BOE's monetary policy committee opted to hold rates with three opting for a 25-basis-points cut. "Monetary policy is not on a pre-set path," the BOE said in a likely signal to markets and investors to moderate rate cut expectations. [PRO] Berkshire stocks drop without BuffettWarren Buffett once predicted that Berkshire Hathaway stock would rise when he eventually steps down. So far, the opposite has happened. Since May 3, when the "Oracle of Omaha" announced his plans to hand over the reins, Berkshire stock has lost more than 10%, underperforming the S&P 500 by about 15 percentage points. Some think it could fall even more. AI avatars in China just proved they are better influencers. It only took a duo 7 hours to rake in more than $7 million Avatars generated by artificial intelligence are now able to sell more than real people can, according to a collaboration between Chinese tech company Baidu and a popular livestreamer. Luo Yonghao, one of China's earliest and most popular livestreamers, and his co-host Xiao Mu both used digital versions of themselves to interact with viewers in real time for well over six hours on Sunday on Baidu's e-commerce livestreaming platform "Youxuan", the Chinese tech company said. The session raked in 55 million yuan ($7.65 million). In comparison, Luo's first livestream attempt on Youxuan last month, which lasted just over four hours, saw fewer orders for consumer electronics, food and other key products, Baidu said.
CNBC
3 hours ago
- Business
- CNBC
Meta tried to buy Ilya Sutskever's $32 billion AI startup, but is now planning to hire its CEO
When Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg poached Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang last week as part of a $14.3 billion investment in the artificial intelligence startup, he was apparently just getting started. Zuckerberg's multibillion-dollar AI hiring spree has now turned to Daniel Gross, the CEO of Ilya Sutskever's startup Safe Superintelligence, and former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman, according to sources with knowledge of the matter. It's not how Zuckerberg planned for a deal to go down. 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. Soon after those talks ended, Zuckerberg started negotiating with Gross, the sources said. In addition to his role at Safe Superintelligence, Gross runs a venture capital firm with Friedman called NFDG, their combined initials. Both men are joining Meta as part of the transaction, and will work on products under Wang, one source said. Meta, meanwhile, will get a stake in NFDG, according to multiple sources. The Information was first to report on Meta's plans to hire Gross and Friedman. Gross, Friedman and Sutskever didn't respond to CNBC's requests for comment. A Meta spokesperson said the company "will share more about our superintelligence effort and the great people joining this team in the coming weeks." Zuckerberg's aggressive hiring tactics escalate an AI talent war that's reached new heights of late. Meta, Google and OpenAI, along with a host of other big companies and high-valued startups, are racing to develop the most powerful large language models, and pushing towards artificial general intelligence (AGI), or AI that's considered equal to or greater than human intelligence. Last week, Meta agreed to pump $14.3 billion into Scale AI to bring on Wang and a few other top engineers while getting a 49% stake in the startup. Altman said on the latest episode of the "Uncapped" podcast, which is hosted by his brother, that Meta has tried to lure OpenAI employees by offering signing bonuses as high as $100 million, with even larger annual compensation packages. Altman said "none of our best people have decided to take them up on that." "I've heard that Meta thinks of us as their biggest competitor," Atlman said on the podcast. "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. OpenAI, for its part, has gone to similar lengths, paying about $6.5 billion to hire iPhone designer Jony Ive and to acquire his nascent devices startup io. Elsewhere, the founders of AI startup were recruited back to Google last year in a multibillion-dollar deal, while DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman was brought on by Microsoft in a $650 million purchase of talent from Inflection AI. In Gross, Zuckerberg is getting a longtime entrepreneur and AI investor. Gross founded the search engine Cue, which was acquired by Apple in 2013. He was a top executive at Apple and helped lead machine learning efforts and the development of Siri. He was later a partner at startup accelerator Y Combinator, before co‑founding Safe Superintelligence alongside Sutskever. Friedman co-founded two startups before becoming the CEO of GitHub following Microsoft's acquisition of the code-sharing platform in 2018. NFDG has backed Coinbase, Figma, CoreWeave, Perplexity and over the years, according to Pitchbook. It's unclear what happens to its investment portfolio in a Meta deal, a source said.
Bloomberg
4 hours ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Teen Social Media Ban Moves Closer in Australia After Tech Trial
Australia's world-first social media ban for under-16s moved closer to implementation after a key trial found that checking a user's age is technologically possible and can be integrated into existing services. The conclusions are a blow to Facebook-owner Meta Platforms Inc., TikTok and Snap Inc., which opposed the controversial legislation. Some platform operators had questioned whether a user's age could be reliably established using current technology.
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Meta-owned WhatsApp enables Bitcoin payments with Sati
Meta-owned WhatsApp enables Bitcoin payments with Sati originally appeared on TheStreet. Felipe Servin, CEO & Founder of Sati, described how Sati delivers a Bitcoin wallet entirely through WhatsApp. 'It's really, really simple, fully noncustodial,' Servin said. He added that Sati never holds private keys, ensuring users retain full control. The approach aims to accelerate Bitcoin adoption without requiring new app installs. Users start by sending a message to a WhatsApp bot, choose a PIN, and the app combines that PIN with a fingerprint of their phone to scramble and store the wallet data only on their device. Because Sati never has access to the scrambled data or PIN, only the user can unlock and spend the Bitcoin, much like keeping cash in a personal safe rather than leaving it with a bank. Servin explained Sati uses WhatsApp Business API with custom encryption. 'Once it's encrypted, everything is integrated in WhatsApp,' he said. Servin highlighted WhatsApp's reach in Mexico, Brazil, Türkiye and parts of Africa. 'Most people in the emerging markets can use it with one message, that's the innovation,' he said. He noted lack of dollars, banking limits and currency devaluation drives adoption. 'Bitcoin in emerging markets is actually the solution. Real usage is happening there,' he explained. Looking ahead, he noted plans for stablecoin swaps. 'A couple really interesting things that are happening are bringing in stablecoins directly on Bitcoin. So swaps are coming like USD to Bitcoin natively on the Lightning Network,' he said. He added open-source code and upcoming key recovery tools: 'We're building something to explore these keys in a couple months. So if something goes down you can get out of the system no problem,' Servin said. Servin said the solution could lower barriers for millions in regions with unstable currencies and support real-world use cases like bill payments and remittances via chat — reinforcing everyday utility. 'Feedback from early users has been positive,' he added. Meta-owned WhatsApp enables Bitcoin payments with Sati first appeared on TheStreet on Jun 19, 2025 This story was originally reported by TheStreet on Jun 19, 2025, where it first appeared. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
