28-Year-Old MIT Dropout Leads Meta's Pivot to AI, Replicating Zuckerberg's Playbook

Alexandr Wang, a former Scale AI founder and one-time MIT dropout, is now steering Meta Platforms into its most ambitious technological pivot—artificial intelligence—echoing how Mark Zuckerberg, a Harvard dropout, once transformed Facebook into a global social-media behemoth. Wang joined Meta as Chief AI Officer in 2025 after the company acquired Scale AI for $14.3 billion, making him the architect of Meta Superintelligence Labs and the leader of a team that includes Nat Friedman (ex-CEO of GitHub) and Daniel Gross (ex-CEO of Safe Superintelligence Inc.).