Meta now making that investment in scale AI official with CEO Alexander Wang departing for a role at Meta.

Dirde Bosa has more on the news in today's tech check. It's a big one, Dee.

It is a big one, Carl. Good morning. So that memo that Alexander Wang posted yesterday to X, it makes clear that this meta deal is in fact another non-traditional

aqua hire. So it brings one of the most strategic players in AI inside Zuckerberg's tent

while attempting to skirt regulators that are already pushing to break off past acquisitions,

Instagram and WhatsApp. And they're also closely watching how big tech consolidates power in the

AI era.

Now, this also makes clear that the most sought after AI talent continues to fetch bigger

and bigger dollar amounts.

Here's what we're calling the Mount Rushmore of the AI talent wars.

It starts with Demas Hussabas.

More than a decade ago, Alphabet brought DeepMind for $400 million. That brought

Hassabas into the company. Now he's the most visible and influential figure driving Google's

most strategic work. That was in 2014, though. So that was a full acquisition and his lab deep

mind sits within Alphabet. Post-2020, chat GPT's release, big tech scrutiny.

It has been the era of non-traditional aquilers. Google's $2.7 billion deal with Noam-Shazir's

startup character AI that left the company, but it brought Shazir back into the fold at Google.

Then you have Microsoft. It did a similar thing with Mustafa Saliman and his startup inflection.

Open AI, of course, was bold enough to do a full acquisition, paying $6.5 billion

for Johnny Ives firm.

And now Alex Wang is the most expensive aqua hire yet $14.3 billion.

Now, not all of it goes to him, but this is ultimately about meta locking him in

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