Kathmandu: In a bold move that has shaken the global AI community, Meta (Facebook’s parent company) has launched an elite AI research division called Superintelligence Labs, signaling a major escalation in the AI race.
Announced on July 3, 2025, the lab aims to attract the world’s most brilliant AI minds — with salary offers reportedly reaching up to $100 million per year (approximately NPR 13 billion). This aggressive investment places Meta at the center of what experts are calling a new phase of the “AI talent war.”
Leading the lab are two high-profile names: Nat Friedman, former CEO of GitHub, and Alexandr Wang, co-founder of Scale AI. In addition, a growing number of top researchers from OpenAI, DeepMind, and Anthropic have already joined Meta — marking a clear strategy shift after underwhelming results from models like LLaMA 4.
Reports suggest that beyond record compensation, researchers are also being offered massive GPU clusters, multi-billion-dollar compute budgets, and research freedom — turning Superintelligence Labs into a dream hub for AI development.
Industry insiders note that this could widen the gap in compensation between companies, creating a wave of “Compensation FOMO” across Silicon Valley. According to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Meta’s recent hires have already started shifting the AI competition landscape in unpredictable ways.
The big question now?
Can massive money and prestige actually help Meta dominate the AI market?
The answer — for now — remains uncertain.
