Peter Thiel confronted Mark Zuckerberg about metaverse focus before abrupt board resignation: report
Billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel reportedly raised concern about Mark Zuckerbergās obsession with the metaverse just before his abrupt resignation from Metaās board of directors last year.
Thielās decision to quit the board was addressed in a sweeping detailing Mš°etaās struggle to keep pace with competitors such as Google and Microsoft in the race to develop advanced artificial intelligence technology.
Meta was reportedly slower than its rivals to invest in advanced computer chips utilized in AI work as Zuckerbš³erg poured billions into metaverse tech last year. Sources told the outlet that the computing issues had slowed Metaās āability to deploy AI to respond to threatsā to its business, including social meš¬dia rival TikTok.
Thiel reportedly toošk notice of Metaź¦°ās issues and confronted Zuckerberg and other members of Metaās board at a meeting before his departure.
The billionaire raised concerns that the company was āfocusing too much on the metaverseā to the detriment of its revenue-driving social media platforms, Reuters reported, citing two sources famšiliar with the exchange.
Thiel reportedly argued that the metaverse push had left Meta āvulnerableā to competitors like TikTok. He resigned from š¦Metaās board in February 2022.
In a brief press release at the time, Meta said Thiel had ādecided not to stand for re-electionā to the board. Multiple reports said āThiel had stepped back from Metaās board in order to focus on advancing his cź¦onservative political agenda ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.
Thiel was Facebook’s first outside investor and had served on its board since 2005.
The Post has reached š½out to Meta and a representative for Thiel fšor comment.
Zuckerź¦ berg reportedly held a meeting with top Meta executives last summer to discuss the companyās AI work.
In a memo from last October obtš ained by Reź¦uters, Meta head of infrastructure Santosh Janardhan reportedly warned internally that the company had a āsignificant gap in our tooling, workflows and processes when it comes to developing for AI.ā
āWe need to invest heavily here,” the memo added.
The company has reportedly scrambled to bolster its AI-related infrastructure and computing capacity given rapid advances by the likes of Microsoft-backed OpenAI and its well-received chatbot ChatGPT.
Metaās capital expenditšures swelled by $4 billion per quartš³er as part of the effort.
Meta iź§s also stepping up its development of so-called generative AI, which tools like ChatGPT use to prź©µovide human-like responses to user prompts.
Sources told Reuters that Meta ādid not prioritize building genāerative AI products until after the launch of ChatGPąµ²T in November.ā
Metaās AI investments have occurred even as Zuckerberšg slashes costs in other parts of the company as part of what he has declared a āyear of efficiency.ā The Facebook parent has cut more than 21,000 jobs since last November.
Meta spokesperson Jon Carvill told Reuters that the company “has a proven track record in creating and deploying state-of-the-art infrastructure at scale combined with deep expertise in AI research and engineering.”
“We’re confident in our ability to continue expanding our infrastructure’s capabilities to meet our near-term and long-term needs as we bring new AI-powered experiences to our family of apps and consumer products,” Carvill added.