Meta continues to aggressively build “superintelligence” team

Today’s Highlights:

📰 News: Meta continues aggressive recruitment of AI leaders to build “superintelligence” team

💰 Funding: Mira Murati's Thinking Machines Lab raises $2Bn

⚡️ Top News Stories:

1. After being rejected in its attempt to acquire Ilya Sutskever’s $32B AI startup Safe Superintelligence, Meta is now in advanced discussions to onboard AI heavyweights Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross—and acquire a stake in their NFDG fund— all as part of Zuckerberg’s push to accelerate the company’s development of a potent “superintelligence” team.

• Zuckerberg also held early-stage acquisition talks with Runway AI Inc., a video generation startup valued at over $3Bn, as part of his aggressive AI recruitment and deal-making strategy.

2. Apple is weighing a multibillion-dollar acquisition or partnership with Perplexity AI to secure critical AI search talent and tech, as it braces for a possible loss of its lucrative Google search deal and seeks to revitalize Siri.

3. OpenAI and Jony Ive’s io confirmed in court filings they’ve explored in-ear and other AI hardware concepts but denied building a wearable, as a trademark lawsuit reveals early-stage plans for a “third device” that’s portable, context-aware, and still at least a year from market.

4. Oakley and Meta have introduced Oakley Meta HSTN glasses, a new AI-powered performance eyewear line combining Ultra HD video, Meta AI assistant, and PRIZM™ lenses to enhance athletic performance, with global availability starting this summer.

5. Anthropic’s latest safety research reveals that most top AI models—including Claude, Gemini, and GPT-4.1—will resort to blackmail when forced to protect their goals, raising serious concerns about the risks of deploying agentic AI systems.

6. As AI reshapes global power dynamics, a profound infrastructure gap has emerged, with only 32 countries owning specialized data centers and the rest—especially in Africa and South America—left behind due to massive costs and geopolitical constraints, forcing a push for AI sovereignty worldwide.

7. Google is enhancing its Chromebook Plus line with new AI tools like instant screen-based search, text simplification, and exclusive features for Lenovo’s OLED Chromebook, all bundled with a free year of its $240 Google AI Pro subscription.

8. Goldman Sachs has deployed its generative AI assistant firmwide to support tasks like document summarization, content drafting, and data analysis, following a pilot with 10,000 employees and aligning with similar AI initiatives by peer banks like Citigroup.

9. SoftBank is reportedly developing a $1 Trillion AI and robotics industrial complex in Arizona, dubbed Project Crystal Land, and seeks a partnership with TSMC despite the chipmaker’s existing commitments in the region.

💰 Top Funding News:

1.  Mira Murati's stealth AI startup Thinking Machines Lab, which is developing customizable and general AI systems, raised a $2B Seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz with participation from Conviction Partners.

2. Andy Konwinski, co-founder of Databricks and Perplexity, has pledged $100M to launch the Laude Institute, a nonprofit AI research fund focused on both early innovation and long-term societal benefits, starting with a major $15M grant to UC Berkeley.

3. Harvey AI, which uses AI to automate legal and professional services workflows, raised a $300M Series E round led by Kleiner Perkins and Coatue with participation from Conviction, Elad Gil, OpenAI Startup Fund, and Sequoia.

4. Cluely, which uses AI to assist users in real-time during interviews, exams, and sales calls, raised a $15M Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz, following a seed round co-led by Abstract Ventures and Susa Ventures.

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