Meta Taps 28-Year-Old MIT Dropout to Lead Superintelligence Push With $14.3 Billion Scale AI Deal

Meta has recruited Alexandr Wang, a 28-year-old MIT dropout and founder of AI data-labeling startup Scale AI, as Chief AI Officer to lead its newly formed Superintelligence Labs, investing $14.3 billion for a 49% stake in the company in what marks a significant strategic realignment of the technology giant's artificial intelligence efforts. Wang's appointment echoes Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's own trajectory—the parallels are deliberate and striking. Just as Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard at 19 to build Facebook into a social-media juggernaut, Wang left MIT after his freshman year in 2015 and co-founded Scale AI at 19, growing it into a critical infrastructure company valued at $29 billion following Meta's June 2025 investment.