Mark Zuckerberg's Meta Expands AI Talent With PlayAI Acquisition: Report

Meta Platforms Inc. META has reportedly acquired PlayAI, an artificial intelligence startup focused on natural-sounding voice technology.

What Happened: While financial terms were not disclosed, the entire PlayAI team will join Meta this week and report to Johan Schalkwyk, another new joinee from voice AI firm Sesame AI, reported Bloomberg, citing an internal memo.

The PlayAI team's "work in creating natural voices, along with a platform for easy voice creation, is a great match for our work and road map, across AI Characters, Meta AI, Wearables and audio content creation," the memo read.

A Meta spokesperson confirmed the deal to the publication but did not elaborate on the details. The tech giant did not immediately respond to Benzinga's request for comments.

Why It's Important: The acquisition is part of Meta's broader AI strategy, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg has called the company's top priority in 2025.

In the past few months, Facebook-parent has restructured its AI operations under the newly launched Meta Superintelligence Labs, led by former Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang.

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Zuckerberg's company has poached leading experts from ChatGPT-parent OpenAI, Anthropic, Alphabet Inc.'s GOOG GOOGL Google DeepMind and Apple Inc. AAPL.

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Just last week, it was reported that Meta has recruited Ruoming Pang, the AI model lead at Apple.

Meta currently has a market capitalization of $1.8 trillion.

Price Action: Meta shares have risen 19.74% year-to-date and are up 44.61% over the past 12 months, according to Benzinga Pro data.

Benzinga's Edge Stock Rankings indicate that META continues to show a steady upward trend in the short, medium, and long term. While its growth score remains strong, its value rating is relatively lower. Additional performance details are available here.