Why OpenAI will lose the race
Alexandr Wang and the NBA draft
Remember the 2017 Golden State Warriors? When they added Kevin Durant to a team that already had Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green? It felt like a cheat code. They were basically a real-life superteam, and it was almost unfair.
Meta is doing in the world of Artificial Intelligence makes that Warriors team look like a casual pickup game.
Zuck isn't just building a team; he's assembling the AI version of The Avengers. We're talking the 2017 Warriors, but then adding LeBron James in his prime, a young Michael Jordan, and probably Tom Brady just to coach the offense. It’s that ridiculous.
Zuck has been on a headhunting spree, poaching the absolute titans of the AI world. Think of it this way: he’s gone to the best labs and universities, like MIT, and basically asked, "Who's your best player?" and then threw a mountain of cash at them. (I threw in a casual MIT shoutout for Alexandr and Nat lol).
And the contracts are insane. We’re not talking about a nice Silicon Valley salary. We’re hearing about signing bonuses in the $100 million range. To put that in perspective, global superstars like Cristiano Ronaldo were considered legendary for signing deals worth $80 million. These AI researchers are now so sought-after they have their own agents negotiating for them. It’s the celebrity treatment, but for people who write code instead of score touchdowns.
The craziest part? There’s no salary cap in the tech world. Zuck has completely ignored the financial rulebook and is operating with a seemingly bottomless war chest. Meta is pumping a reported $65 billion into its AI division this year alone. That's not a typo. That’s a "buy a small country" level of investment.
But they're not just spending it on salaries. They're building their own stadium, too. Instead of relying on NVIDIA, the undisputed champion of AI chips, Meta is developing its own custom hardware called "MTIA" chips. This is a power move. It's like a team not only having the best players but also building a futuristic, state-of-the-art arena that gives them a home-field advantage no one else can match. They want to own the entire ecosystem, from the talent to the tech that powers it all.
Now for the billion-dollar question: Can you really buy a championship? In sports, superteams are a huge gamble. Sometimes they dominate, but other times they implode spectacularly. You get a clash of massive egos, players who can't figure out how to share the ball, and a locker room full of drama. Will Meta’s AI dream team face the same problem? When you bring together dozens of the smartest people on the planet, all of whom are now multi-millionaires, do they collaborate, or do they clash? The biggest challenge for Zuck might not be recruiting the talent, but getting them to check their egos at the door and work together to build a single, cohesive AI. History shows that a team of superstars doesn't always beat a superstar team.
Let's not forget, Meta isn't playing against itself. This is the AI World Cup, and the competition is fierce. You have Google's DeepMind, the legacy dynasty. They're like the Los Angeles Lakers or the New York Yankees; they've been around, they have the pedigree, and they've got a roster of legends. Then you have OpenAI, the creators of ChatGPT. They are the scrappy underdogs who burst onto the scene and suddenly became title contenders, shocking everyone. They’re the "Showtime Lakers" of AI; flashy, popular, and incredibly effective.
At the end of the day, I'm a huge believer that the team with the best players usually wins. It’s not a hot take, but it's true. While a cohesive team of lesser talent can sometimes pull off an upset, the sheer force of genius that Meta is collecting is terrifying for its competitors.
Here’s a free way to make money. Meta is currently priced at a 12c to have the best model with probably the greatest team to exist in AI.