Meta wants to speed its race to ‘superintelligence’ — but investors will still want their billions in ad revenue

She has written digital and enterprise for over a decade.SEE FULL BIO Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg

DAVID PAUL MORRIS—Bloomberg/Getty ImagesMeta is doubling down on its so-called race to “superintelligence,” reshuffling its AI organization once more as its new Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL) takes shape

But analysts say investors are keeping their eye on the prize Meta has always mised: Imved ducts that increase engagement and, in turn, sell more ads

Superintelligent AI models, if they come, are just a means to that end

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 duct managers, is looking to rein it in, reportedly resulting in some expected executive departures and at least one team shutdown

Wang was hired to help recruit a small, high-priced cadre of reers—some reportedly offered compensation packages exceeding $100 million, typically spread over several years —now perched at the pinnacle of Meta’s AI effort

But that group is only the tip of the spear: The new restructuring folds the entire AI organization into MSL, with four new groups focused on re, training, ducts, and infrastructure, all part of a bid for speed

The quartet of group leaders will all report to Wang, including well-known investor and former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman, who will lead duct and applied re, and former OpenAI reer Shengjia Zhao, who will lead the re team as chief scientist

The -price slide also reflects broader market jitters, as overheated AI and Big names come off recent highs, said Daniel Newman, CEO of re firm The Futurum Group

He said he expects a “modest correction” but noted that Meta has “had an incredible run” and recently “dered a great quarter once again.” Still, analysts are eyeing Zuckerberg’s nine-figure paydays for top AI reers and his repeated reorganizing, and watching for signs that Meta will close the gap in the AI race “Of course there is some concern,” Newman said, pointing out that numerous frontier models from OpenAI, xAI, and Google continue to imve while Meta’s open-source Llama models have “seemingly stalled.” “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. ing Meta’s duct machine That need for speed, however, is best understood as an extension of Meta’s duct machine rather than a bid to solve humanity’s greatest challenges

While Meta has dabbled in moonshot AI through its FAIR re lab (cofounded by chief scientist Yann LeCun), rivals 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: imving the ducts that power engagement on its massively fitable social-media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp

Zuckerberg underscored this focus last month with an Instagram Reel and blog post in which he said AI is rapidly advancing and that we’re beginning to see “glimpses of AI systems imving themselves.” Superintelligence is now “in sight,” he added — but while rival AI companies talk scientific or economic breakthroughs, his vision is aimed squarely at the individual: a personalized AI that helps you “achieve your goals, create what you want to see in the world, be a better friend, and grow to become the person that you aspire to be.” 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 Meta’s spects because the company “isn’t as dependent on the re end of its , 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 ulx 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 ulx 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 s

Overall, ulx 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 race, there’s inevitably going to be a lot of pivoting

It comes with the territory,” he said

How the company fares will be closely watched: “The question now is whether the team is effectively enabled to der, or not,” said ulx.Introducing the 2025 Fortune Global 500, the definitive ranking of the biggest companies in the world

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