This time it’s former Scale CEO Alexandr Wang—brought on by Mark Zuckerberg in June as chief AI officer—leading the reorganization. Wang, who now oversees a sprawling operation of thousands of engineers, scientists, and product managers, is looking to rein it in, reportedly resulting in some expected executive departures and at least one team shutdown.
Investors, meanwhile, seem to have mixed feelings: Meta’s stock slid more than 2% on the news today, but climbed most of the way back by market close.
“We think the team at Meta, after Zuckerberg’s hiring spree, will need a period of acclimation before it finds the velocity to develop more competitive solutions,” he said.
That need for speed, however, is best understood as an extension of Meta’s product machine rather than a bid to solve humanity’s greatest challenges. While Meta has dabbled in moonshot AI through its FAIR research lab (cofounded by chief scientist Yann LeCun), rivals like OpenAI, Anthropic, and spinoffs such as Thinking Machine Labs and Safe Superintelligence have made the pursuit of artificial general intelligence (AI generally defined to be as smart as humans) and superintelligence (AI far smarter than humans) their central mission.
Meta’s mission, by contrast, has remained the same as it was before “superintelligence” became a buzzword: improving the products that power engagement on its massively profitable social-media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. The advertising on those platforms is the source of near all of Meta’s revenue, which reached $46.6 billion in the most recent quarter.
That framing neatly aligns with what Meta has always built — consumer-facing experiences designed to keep people engaged (and sell more ads). To Zuckerberg, superintelligence also means powering the future of AI-infused personal devices, specifically augmented-reality glasses that can “see what we see, hear what we hear, and interact with us throughout the day.”
Newman said he continues to like Meta’s prospects because the company “isn’t as dependent on the research end of its business, as it is using AI to continue to create higher Daily Active User numbers — and of course, the coinciding revenue continues to rise as well.”
But Forrester’s Mike Proulx countered that there is no doubt Meta is laser-focused on building “the best and most powerful AI models, period,” he told Fortune. “The race is on and Meta is lagging against competitors. A concerted focus on superintelligence gives Meta a North Star to rally around both strategically and operationally.”
Zuckerberg echoed that sentiment on Meta’s most recent earnings call, stressing that AI is at the center of each of Meta’s five focus areas. But Proulx pointed out that it was AI glasses — not the company’s family of apps — that Zuckerberg highlighted on that call as “the main way” superintelligence will enter people’s daily lives.
Overall, Proulx said he is not concerned with the seemingly constant upheaval in Meta’s AI organization. “This space is moving at breakneck speed. As with any emerging tech race, there’s inevitably going to be a lot of pivoting. It comes with the territory,” he said.
For all the lofty talk of superintelligence, however, Meta’s AI reshuffling shows its bets are mostly still the same: personalized products that keep billions scrolling, ads flowing—and soon, AI-powered glasses perched on every face. How the company fares will be closely watched: “The question now is whether the team is effectively enabled to deliver, or not,” said Proulx.
