Meta’s aggressive push to become a global leader in artificial intelligence is facing internal tensions, with a new report indicating growing concern among executives about how the effort is going.
According to a Financial Times report, Alexander Wang – the billionaire founder of Scale AI, who joined Meta earlier this year – has privately expressed frustration with CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s highly hands-on management style, describing it to co-workers as restrictive. Wang became central to Meta’s AI strategy after the company invested more than $14 billion in a 49% stake in his data tagging startup.
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Wang, who is publicly positioned as a key architect of Meta’s AI reset, is said to be struggling with the pace and structure of decision-making as Zuckerberg maintains tight control over product direction and research priorities. People familiar with the situation told the FT that this approach contributed to internal tensions rather than speeding up implementation.
The reported friction comes amid a wider shake-up within the Meta. Over the past year, the company has seen repeated layoffs, senior exits and a forced introduction of artificial intelligence, even as it ramped up spending at an unprecedented rate.
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One of the internal failures highlighted in the report was the introduction of Meta’s large Llama 4 language model. Despite high expectations, the model reportedly lagged behind competitors in benchmarks related to coding and reasoning. Meta also faced criticism for allegedly submitting a modified version for public review. Employees cited gaps in training data, limited testing time, and organizational silos as contributing factors.
Rather than slowing down, Zuckerberg has reportedly ramped up his efforts — greenlighting massive investments in AI infrastructure and launching a hiring spree across Silicon Valley with compensation packages in the tens of millions of dollars.
Wang now heads a confidential internal unit tasked with developing a next-generation Meta artificial intelligence system codenamed “Avocado.” However, the FT report said some staff questioned whether his experience with AI data services fully equipped him to manage large frontier research teams the size of Meta.
Tensions have also been reported over Nat Friedman, GitHub’s former CEO, who oversees the integration of AI products. The teams reportedly faced pressure to deliver features quickly to keep up with competitors like OpenAI, sometimes at the cost of internal alignment and testing.
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At the management level, Meta has seen a steady stream of departures. Chief legal officer Jennifer Newstead recently joined Apple, while chief revenue officer John Hegeman announced plans to leave. Veteran AI scientist Yann LeCun is also expected to step down and pursue an independent research initiative amid disagreements over reporting structure and research focus.
Despite the outflows, Meta continues to reduce roles in its AI teams, viewing the layoffs as a move to streamline operations.
All this is taking place against the background of enormous expenditure. Meta’s capital spending on AI is expected to reach at least $70 billion this year, with Zuckerberg signaling that annual costs could climb even higher — a trajectory that has unsettled investors worried about long-term cash flow.
Meta disputed aspects of the Financial Times report, saying it routinely tests multiple variants of the AI model and warning that public benchmarks can be misleading. The company also quashed suggestions of widespread internal dysfunction.
As Meta races to keep pace in the global AI arms race, the report suggests that questions of leadership style, speed and organizational clarity may be as fundamental as the technology itself.
