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Mark Zuckerberg’s patience ran out as Yann LeCun leaves Meta after $15bn Alexandr Wang deal
LeCun’s exit was 'inevitable' after Zuckerberg decided to bring Alexandr Wang on board
Mark Zuckerberg’s patience appears to have finally run out, as long-time chief AI scientist Yann LeCun reportedly leaves Meta following the company’s $15 billion deal with Alexandr Wang, founder of Scale AI.
The move highlights a major leadership shift within the company, as Zuckerberg pushes for faster AI innovation to rival OpenAI and Google.
According to Hyperbolic co-founder Yuchen Jin, LeCun’s exit was “inevitable” after Zuckerberg decided to bring Alexandr Wang on board to lead Meta’s new “superintelligence” division.
Jin claimed that Zuckerberg’s frustration grew when Meta’s large language model, Llama 4, failed to match the success of OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
“Yann never believed in LLM-to-AGI. Zuck’s patience ran out,” Jin wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
LeCun, a pioneer in deep learning, had previously advocated for long-term AI research over quick commercial wins.
However, Zuckerberg’s $15 billion bet on Wang marks a strategic shift from research to product-driven AI development.
Jin also compared the situation to Google’s move to bring back AI pioneer Noam Shazeer in 2024 after a costly acquisition.
As Meta reshapes its AI leadership, Zuckerberg seems determined to accelerate progress, even if it means parting ways with one of AI’s biggest names.