Meta’s star AI hire Alexandr Wang finds Mark Zuckerberg's management style ‘suffocating’: report

Alexandr Wang, Meta's chief AI officer, is reportedly unhappy with Mark Zuckerberg's management style, describing it as suffocating.

Published on: Dec 21, 2025, 06:37:53 IST

By Sanya Jain

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Mark Zuckerberg shelled out billions to bring AI prodigy Alexandr Wang to Meta, but now there are reports of tensions brewing between the two. Wang, the 28-year-old founder of Scale AI, was appointed chief AI officer at Meta earlier this year after the tech giant acquired a 49% stake in his startup for more than $14 billion.

Meta Superintelligence Labs is overseen by Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang, who joined the company as part of a $14 billion deal for a stake in his former startup, Scale AI. (REUTERS FILE)

However, the 28-year-old has reportedly been complaining about Zuckerberg’s management style. According to a report in Financial Times, Wang has complained to associates that Zuckerberg’s micromanagement is “suffocating”.

Tensions at Meta

The Financial Times report, citing multiple people familiar with the matter, said that Wang is unhappy with the way things are progressing at Meta.

Although he is the company’s star AI hire and one of its highest-paid employees, Wang feels that Zuckerberg’s management style is hampering progress.

Wang’s unhappiness is the latest sign of turmoil at Meta, which has faced repeated layoffs, senior leadership exits, hurried AI launches and massive spending that have hurt employee morale and worried investors.

Who is Alexandr Wang?

Alexandr Wang is an American technology entrepreneur and AI leader. He serves as Meta’s chief AI officer, heading the company’s newly formed Meta Superintelligence Labs — a strategic role focused on advancing Meta’s artificial intelligence research and development. This appointment came after Meta made a major investment in Scale AI, the AI company Wang co-founded.

Wang co-founded Scale AI in 2016 when he was just 19, building it into one of the most important companies in the AI ecosystem. He enrolled briefly at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) before dropping out to focus fully on his startup.

(Also read: Who is Alexandr Wang? Billionaire AI chief at Meta urges teens to spend all their time on this activity)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sanya Jain
Sanya Jain is an Assistant Editor with Hindustan Times Digital. She has nearly a decade of experience in covering offbeat stories that speak to the everyday experience - from viral videos to human interest copies that spark conversation. Her interests stretch across business, pop culture, social media trends, entertainment and global affairs. Before joining Hindustan Times, Sanya spent two years with Moneycontrol and five years with NDTV. She holds an undergraduate degree in English literature from St Stephen’s College, Delhi, and a master’s in journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications, Mumbai. Sanya has a sharp eye for spotting emerging trends and looking for newsworthy angles to elevate viral posts into meaningful narratives. She was the first one, for example, to cover Narayana Murthy’s remark on 70-hour work weeks that sparked a national conversation. She is equally at ease writing about business leaders as about the common man, about issues of national importance and memes that amuse social media. Sanya enjoys speaking with content creators, newsmakers and entrepreneurs to transform everyday moments into engaging, slice-of-life stories that resonate with readers. When she is not working, Sanya can be found curled up with a good book. Born and raised in Lucknow, she has spent the last several years in Delhi. She is deeply interested in animal welfare and now spends a lot of her time running after her destructive orange cat.Read More

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