Overview

• AI scientist Rishabh Agarwal said he left Meta’s new superintelligence effort five months after joining.
• Meta spokesperson Dave Arnold told The Verge that only Ethan Knight departed the TBD Lab and that Avi Verma and Agarwal never started roles there.
• Wired-cited reports described at least three departures and said Verma and Knight returned to OpenAI, a characterization Meta disputes.
• Internal memos show a temporary hiring freeze across Meta Superintelligence Labs during 2026 budget planning, with exceptions for business‑critical roles.
• The division is being reorganized into TBD Lab, FAIR, Products & Applied Research, and MSL Infra, following a $14.3 billion Scale AI deal that brought Alexandr Wang in to lead.