When Mark Zuckerberg determined to launch his quest for the metaverse in 2021, he threw fistfuls of money on the effort. Meta’s boss is now repeating the act, this time with generative synthetic intelligence (AI). Scorching on the heels of what stands out as the world’s most costly acquihire—a $14.3bn deal to purchase 49% of Scale AI, a data-labelling agency whose foremost asset is Alexandr Wang, its 28-year-old founder—folks near the matter say Mr Zuckerberg is planning to supply greater than $1bn mixed for 2 of Silicon Valley’s hottest AI mind packing containers, who would work beneath Mr Wang. It marks the beginning of a reset of Meta’s generative-AI ambitions.