Meta’s AI Star Yann LeCun To Leave Zuckerberg’s Company, Plans To Build His Own Startup
Meta’s long-time Chief Artificial Intelligence Scientist Yann LeCun has officially announced that he will leave the company after more than a decade of leading some of its most influential research efforts. The Turing Award laureate, widely regarded as one of the “godfathers of AI”, confirmed on Wednesday that he intends to step away by the end of the year to build his own startup centred on next-generation AI systems capable of understanding the physical world.
The announcement comes at a crucial time for Meta, which is accelerating its push towards artificial general intelligence (AGI) and expanding its newly created Superintelligence Labs.
A major departure for Meta’s AI ecosystem
Posting on Threads, LeCun explained that he plans to move on after 12 years with Meta, five years as the founding director of FAIR (Fundamental AI Research) and seven years serving as the company’s Chief AI Scientist. He expressed gratitude to Meta leadership including Mark Zuckerberg, Andrew Bosworth, Chris Cox and Mike Schroepfer, acknowledging their support during his tenure.
LeCun played a central role in shaping Meta’s research culture. Under his leadership, FAIR became one of the world’s most influential AI research groups, pioneering advancements in self-supervised learning, computer vision, natural language modelling and robotics. Many of Meta’s biggest milestones in AI, including the creation of the original LLaMA models, came from FAIR’s early work.
Shift in Meta’s strategy and the rise of Superintelligence Labs
While FAIR focused on open, long-term foundational research, Meta has recently turned its attention to building powerful generative AI systems and pursuing superintelligence. This new direction led to the formation of Superintelligence Labs, headed by Alexandr Wang, signalling a sharper focus on AGI-level capabilities and commercial AI products.
Although neither Meta nor LeCun explicitly linked this strategic shift to his decision to leave, the timing has prompted speculation. LeCun, however, clarified that his departure is driven by his desire to pursue his own vision of what he calls Advanced Machine Intelligence (AMI), an AI approach designed to better understand and interact with the physical world.
LeCun’s new startup will still collaborate with Meta
In his posts, LeCun noted that AMI could have broad applications across multiple sectors, some of which may intersect with Meta’s existing interests. Because of this overlap, Meta is expected to remain a partner in his upcoming venture, a move that suggests the departure is amicable and mutually beneficial.
A new chapter for both sides
LeCun’s exit marks one of the most significant leadership changes in Meta’s AI history. As Meta doubles down on AGI and consumer-facing AI, LeCun is steering toward research-heavy territory aimed at redefining the next era of machine intelligence.
His new startup, yet to be formally unveiled, could become a major force in the global AI landscape, setting the stage for a new wave of innovation beyond the boundaries of Big Tech.
