Meta Platforms has hired three senior executives from OpenAI's Stargate operation, the initiative behind the ChatGPT-maker's ambitious cloud and data centre expansion, according to The Information.
Peter Hoeschele, who played a central role in getting the Stargate project off the ground, is among those moving across, along with Shamez Hemani, who worked on compute strategy and business development, and Anuj Saharan, another senior figure in OpenAI's compute organisation.
The three will join Meta's newly created compute group, known as Meta Compute, and work closely with Daniel Gross, vice president of product, and Nat Friedman, a senior AI executive at the company. They will support TBD Lab, Meta's new AI unit, which is run by Alexandr Wang, the former chief executive of data labelling company Scale AI.
Inside the new structure
Meta Compute was formed as part of a broader reorganisation of Meta's AI infrastructure. Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg brought two leaders of the group on as direct reports: Santosh Janardhan, who oversees the design and construction of Meta's data centres, and Gross, whose remit covers strategy, industry analysis and supplier partnerships.
The structure is designed to consolidate Meta's growing ambitions in AI compute, giving the company more direct control over the hardware and infrastructure decisions that underpin its AI development.
Sensitive time
The departures from OpenAI come at a sensitive moment. The Stargate initiative is central to OpenAI's push to secure long-term computing capacity, and losing experienced executives to a direct competitor adds pressure to a project already navigating significant logistical complexity.
For Meta, the hires are a signal of intent. TBD Lab, despite its provisional name, is being treated as a serious organisational priority, with Wang and Zuckerberg stacking it with experienced operators from across the industry.
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The broader pattern is one the sector has grown familiar with: as demand for AI infrastructure expertise outstrips supply, the executives who know how to build at scale have become some of the most contested talent in technology.
Bloomberg reported some details of Meta's hiring plans earlier. Meta did not respond to a request for comment, according to The Information.