Meta Recruits Former OpenAI Scientist in Drive Toward Artificial General Intelligence

Meta Recruits Former OpenAI Scientist in Drive Toward Artificial General Intelligence

Trapit Bansal joins Meta’s elite AI team as company accelerates efforts in reasoning models, robotics, and defense applications.

Another OpenAI Brain Joins Meta’s Expanding AI Lab

Meta has added another heavyweight to its artificial intelligence roster, hiring Trapit Bansal, a former OpenAI researcher credited with shaping the firm’s o1 reasoning AI model. Bansal’s appointment follows the earlier onboarding of Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov, and Xiaohua Zhai, strengthening Meta’s elite AI research corps.

The move is part of a broader strategy by Meta to solidify its leadership in Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), a field defined by machines capable of performing complex reasoning, learning from real-world environments, and making adaptive decisions.

Meta’s Intelligence Blueprint: Real-World Training at Scale

Meta’s chief AI scientist Yann LeCun has been vocal about the company’s AGI vision, emphasizing the importance of machines that can understand the physical world, retain persistent memory, plan hierarchically, and reason effectively.

To support this goal, Meta is expanding training inputs to include video data and robotics, enabling AI systems to interpret and adapt to dynamic, real-world environments.

Strategic Alliances and Energy Moves to Power the AI Race

Meta’s AGI ambitions go beyond talent acquisition. In June 2025, the company made bold infrastructure investments:

• Acquired a 49% stake in Scale AI, a leading data labeling firm valued at $15 billion.

  • Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang will collaborate directly with Meta’s internal AI development teams.

• Signed a 20-year agreement with Constellation Energy to receive 1.1 gigawatts of nuclear energy, fueling its data centers from 2027.

  • The power will come from the Clinton Clean Energy Center in Illinois.

Meta and Anduril Partner to Build AI-Driven AR Headsets for U.S. Military

In May, Meta partnered with defense contractor Anduril to develop AI-powered augmented reality headsets for U.S. military use. The headsets will run on Anduril’s Lattice platform, which aggregates battlefield sensor and weapons data into real-time tactical intelligence.

According to a May 29 statement, this collaboration brings Meta’s AI work into national defense, integrating cutting-edge AI with mission-critical environments.

Meta Steps Further into the AI Arms Race

Meta’s recent wave of acquisitions, hires, and power infrastructure agreements signals a serious push to be at the forefront of AGI development. With a growing team of former OpenAI minds and partnerships reaching into defense and energy, the company is staking its future on intelligent machines capable of more than just automation.