Peter Thiel confronted Mark Zuckerberg about metaverse focus before abrupt board resignation: report
Billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel reportedly raised concern about Mark Zuckerberg’s obsession with the metaverse just before his abrupt resignation from Meta’s board of directors last year.
Thiel’s decision to quit the board was addressed in a sweeping Reuters report detailing Meta’s 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 Zuckerberg poured billions into metaverse tech last year. Sources told the outlet that the computing issues had slowed Meta’s “ability to deploy AI to respond to threats” to its business, including social media rival TikTok.
Thiel reportedly took notice of Meta’s issues and confronted Zuckerberg and other members of Meta’s board at a meeting before his departure.
The billionaire raised concerns that the company was “focusing too much on the metaverse” to the detriment of its revenue-driving social media platforms, Reuters reported, citing two sources familiar with the exchange.
Thiel reportedly argued that the metaverse push had left Meta “vulnerable” to competitors like TikTok. He resigned from Meta’s board in February 2022.
In a brief press release at the time, Meta said Thiel had “decided not to stand for re-election” to the board. Multiple reports said Thiel had stepped back from Meta’s board in order to focus on advancing his conservative 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 out to Meta and a representative for Thiel for comment.
Zuckerberg reportedly held a meeting with top Meta executives last summer to discuss the company’s AI work.
In a memo from last October obtained by Reuters, Meta head of infrastructure Santosh Janardhan reportedly warned internally that the company had a “significant gap in our tooling, workflows and processes when it comes to developing for AI.”
“We 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.
Meta’s capital expenditures swelled by $4 billion per quarter as part of the effort.
Meta is also stepping up its development of so-called generative AI, which tools like ChatGPT use to provide human-like responses to user prompts.
Sources told Reuters that Meta “did not prioritize building generative AI products until after the launch of ChatGPT in November.”
Meta’s AI investments have occurred even as Zuckerberg slashes costs in other parts of the company as part of what he has declared a “year of efficiency.” 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.
