Aiming for Superintelligence
Focusing All Efforts on Securing Top Talent
Meta Platforms (Meta), the parent company of Facebook, has reportedly discussed acquiring the video generation startup Runway AI.
On June 23 (local time), Bloomberg, citing multiple anonymous sources, reported that Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, explored the possibility of acquiring Runway AI. However, the discussions did not result in an official offer with specific terms such as price, and negotiations have since been halted.
CEO Zuckerberg is fully committed to securing top-tier AI talent as he aims to develop "Superintelligence" that surpasses human-level Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). In this process, Meta has been making high-salary offers and pursuing acquisition negotiations simultaneously.
Runway is a startup that has attracted attention for its highly realistic AI-based video generation technology and was valued at over $3 billion (approximately 4.1 trillion won) earlier this year.
Recently, Meta invested about $14.3 billion (approximately 19.5 trillion won) in the AI data labeling company Scale AI and also recruited its founder, Alexander Wang. Previously, CNBC reported that Meta had considered the possibility of acquiring the AI-based search engine company Perplexity AI.
Additionally, Meta attempted to acquire Safe Superintelligence (SSI), founded by OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever, but after the deal fell through, Meta reportedly recruited Daniel Gross, CEO of SSI, and Nat Friedman, former CEO of GitHub.
Meanwhile, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, recently publicly criticized Meta, stating, "Meta offered our employees up to $100 million (approximately 136.8 billion won) in signing bonuses," calling it "crazy."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
