Meta Platforms Has Appointed Prominent AI Executive Daniel Gross And May Acquire Shares In His Venture Firm Meta Platforms has appointed renowned AI executive Daniel Gross and may acquire shares in the venture capital firm he co-founded. Until recently, Gross served as CEO of well-funded AI startup Safety Superintelligence (SSI), a company he co-founded with former OpenAI researcher Ilya Sutskever and Daniel Levi in 2024. Sutskever announced Gross's departure in a social media post. Initial reports about Meta's plans to recruit Gross emerged in mid-June. The parent company of Facebook originally aimed to acquire SSI, which had achieved a $3.2 billion valuation in April. After Sutskever rejected the acquisition offer, Meta shifted focus to hiring Gross directly. Sutskever, previously OpenAI's chief scientist, now serves as SSI's new CEO while overseeing the company's technical team. SSI specializes in superintelligence research - hypothetical future AI capable of surpassing human capabilities in multiple domains. "We've heard from companies interested in acquiring us," Sutskever posted on X. "We're honored by their interest, but focused on completing our work." Although the SSI acquisition attempt failed, Meta could still indirectly gain exposure to the startup. Gross co-founded venture firm NFDG with former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman, which holds SSI equity. The Wall Street Journal reported Meta has proposed acquiring up to 49% of NFDG's limited partner shares. Under this arrangement, Meta would not gain access to portfolio company information including SSI data. Gross will join Meta's newly established Meta Superintelligence Lab (MSL), developing advanced AI models similar to SSI's research. Friedman leads the department alongside former Scale AI CEO Alexander Wang, who joined MSL last month after Meta's $1.43 billion investment in Scale AI. Meta has also recruited several prominent OpenAI researchers for MSL. Recent reports indicate the company offers over $100 million in compensation packages to attract AI talent. This department will oversee Meta's AI research agenda, including Llama language model development and commercialization efforts. The talent acquisition strategy may continue expanding. Bloomberg reported Meta has discussed acquiring AI voice startup PlayAI Inc. and hiring multiple employees. The company reportedly previously explored potential acquisitions at Perplexity AI Inc.