META: Meta Stock Seeks Direction as Zuck’s Hiring Spree Exposes Traders to Risky Bets

First it was $14 billion into Wang’s AI startup. Now, reports say the Facebook founder was desperately catching up by trying to recruit an OpenAI co-founder.

💰 Zuck’s Billion-Dollar Bets

• Meta stock META was floating unchanged around $695 a share ahead of the opening bell on Friday as traders were parsing headlines about Zuck’s latest ventures into shopping, hiring, and dealmaking.
• The newest bit of info just dropped — the Meta founder and CEO tried earlier this year to onboard OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever by buying out his $32 billion AI firm, Safe Superintelligence. Sutskever left OpenAI last year when he and Sam Altman had a fallout, leading to Sutskever’s new gig (apparently, a massive success, too).
• Only that Zuck’s deal couldn’t get Sutskever to sign up for Meta’s dreams of AI, robotics, and automation. This wasn’t the end of Zuck’s efforts to headhunt the AI industry’s best and brightest minds.

🤫 If at First You Don’t Succeed…

• According to multiple reports, Zuckerberg has now set his sights on Daniel Gross, CEO of Safe Superintelligence, as well as former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman, as part of his growing AI talent hunt. In separate efforts, Sam Altman said in a podcast, Zuck has attempted to recruit OpenAI’s team by offering each a $100 million signup bonus.
• Clearly, Zuck is willing to open Meta’s war chest to get in on the action. Earlier this month, Zuck shelled out more than $14 billion to get a stake in Scale AI and onboard its CEO, Alexandr Wang.
• All these acquisition attempts are Meta’s desperate (and bold and expensive) catch-up plays in the AI race — all moves that risk exposing shareholders to potential losses if they don’t pan out as intended (Remember the Metaverse? That’s now billions of losses each year for Meta.)

🔥 Meta Shares Winning — For How Long?

• Right now, Meta is the biggest winner in the Magnificent Seven club. Year to date, the shares are up more than 16% as investors have voted in favor of Zuck’s bold vision. Microsoft (ticker: MSFT) is close behind with its shares up 14% on the year. All else are either in the red or just above the flatline. Can we start calling it the M&M club?
• What traders now need to figure out is how to balance Meta’s long-term AI vision against the short-term risks of pouring billions into expensive, uncertain technology bets, emptying up the 2025 capex wallets (about $72 billion in there).
• For sure, Meta won’t sit on the sidelines while Big Tech reshapes AI. But looking ahead, investors may get tired of scrolling on Zuck’s grand AI game.