Meta has reached a new milestone on Wall Street, with its shares soaring to an all-time high of $747.90 during Monday trading, signaling strong investor enthusiasm for the company’s latest artificial intelligence initiatives. The stock rally reflects growing market confidence in Meta’s ambitious push into the AI sector, spearheaded by its recently established Superintelligence Labs.

The historic stock surge comes at a time of aggressive hiring by CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who is steering the company through an intense competition for top AI talent. Meta’s rapid recruitment efforts, targeting some of the industry’s most prominent figures, have ignited a talent war with other major players in the AI landscape, including OpenAI and Google’s parent company, Alphabet.

As part of its $14.3 billion investment into advancing AI capabilities, Meta has brought on board high-profile executives like Alexandr Wang, the CEO of a leading data labeling and annotation company, as well as Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross, who co-lead the AI startup Safe Superintelligence. These figures now head Meta’s Superintelligence Labs, an internal team charged with developing the company’s core AI foundation models and research strategy.

Although Meta attempted to acquire Safe Superintelligence outright, its founder declined the offer. Nevertheless, the company’s strategy of acquiring top talent has continued. Reports indicate that Meta has also attracted engineers and researchers away from rival OpenAI, offering signing bonuses as high as $100 million to lure in top-tier professionals.

Andrew Bosworth, Meta’s Chief Technology Officer, described the current AI talent market as “incredible” and “unprecedented,” noting that in his two decades in the tech industry, he’s never witnessed such fierce competition for expertise.

This surge in hiring and innovation comes amid a broader restructuring within Meta. Earlier this year, the company made headlines for cutting approximately 5% of its workforce, targeting employees it labeled as “low performers.” The layoffs were part of a strategic shift toward investing in high-value areas like artificial intelligence, signaling a clear priority pivot.