Zuckerberg Hired a 28-Year-Old for $14 Billion. It's Working.

In June of 2025, Mark Zuckerberg put $14.3 billion into Scale AI, according to Scale, and brought its 28-year-old founder, Alexandr Wang, to Meta as its first-ever chief AI officer. That year Meta would spend about $70 billion on capex, and still didn't have much to show for it in AI. Fifteen months later, Meta's AI agent, Muse, passed ChatGPT as the top free iPhone app in the US, and on September 21st, Meta's stock closed up 11.3%. So how did Meta go from a failing AI lab project to the top of the App Store? Every figure on screen is sourced. Charts and the full write-up: https://www.boardroomwire.com/wire/al... CHAPTERS 0:00 A Massive Bet 0:28 Nothing to Show for It 1:29 What $14 Billion Bought 3:31 Avocado 4:40 Free, Inside WhatsApp 6:33 Number One 7:51 The Paid Rivals 9:31 The Bill IF YOU WANT MORE OF THIS ▶ When Meta reports its third quarter, expected later this month, we'll go through what it says about Muse. Subscribe so you don't miss it ▶ Disagree with a number? Comments are open. Bring the source and we'll correct it on the site. ▶ Follow @BoardroomWire on X for the stories that don't make it to video A NOTE ON THE NUMBERS Muse's download and chart numbers are app-tracker estimates, mostly from Sensor Tower, and cover Muse's first three weeks. Meta's third-quarter results will be the first real chance to see a Muse number from Meta itself. The 11.3% is our calculation from Meta's daily closes ($741.25 against $665.75). The narration quotes Meta calling Muse Spark "the first production of" its overhaul; Meta's words are "the first product of a ground-up overhaul of our AI efforts," as shown on screen. Meta's fix for the Mac app's security hole came on September 22nd, before the Messages complaint of September 28th, not after it. Muse Spark 1.3's rank, 23rd of 224, is from the Artificial Analysis index as of October 4th; by October 8th it was 23rd of 225. SOURCES • Meta 10-K, 2025 (the Scale stake): https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/da... • Meta, 2025 results (capex): https://investor.atmeta.com/investor-... • Meta, Q2 2026 results: https://s21.q4cdn.com/399680738/files... • Zuckerberg, July 2024: https://about.fb.com/news/2024/07/ope... • Muse Spark: https://ai.meta.com/blog/introducing-... • Muse: https://about.fb.com/news/2026/09/int... • Scale on the $14.3 billion and 49%, via CNBC: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/06/12/scale... • Apple's top free chart, September 18th: https://web.archive.org/web/202609181... • Artificial Analysis: https://artificialanalysis.ai/article... Every other source, and every article and post shown in the video, with outlets and dates: https://www.boardroomwire.com CREDITS Footage used for commentary and criticism: Meta; Core Memory Podcast; New Things with Joanna Stern; Y Combinator; Uncapped with Jack Altman; ReadMe; General Intuition, ai-PULSE 2025; World Governments Summit; SpaceXAI; OpenAI. Thumbnail and closing illustration: adapted from Wikimedia Commons photos of Alexandr Wang by Meta Platforms, Inc. (CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi..., of Mark Zuckerberg by Jeff Sainlar for Meta (CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...) and of Alexandr Wang by Village Global (CC BY 2.0). Cropped, background removed and adapted into illustrations. Both are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Commentary and analysis, not investment advice. Boardroom Wire is not affiliated with Meta or any company or outlet shown; names and logos are trademarks of their owners.