Meta Acquires PlayAI, Startup Generating Human-Like Voices
In the latest chapter in Meta's AI buying and hiring spree, Meta has acquired AI voice cloning startup PlayAI.
Meta confirmed the acquisition to Bloomberg, but didn't state the deal's value. According to an internal memo leaked to Bloomberg, the "entire PlayAI team," around 35 people, will join Meta this week. They will report to Johan Schalkwyk, a former speech AI researcher at Google who recently joined Meta from another AI voice startup called Sesame AI.
PlayAI's core product is a voice cloning tool that can generate human-sounding voices. The startup has partnered with companies like Walgreens and Salesforce to create voice agents for businesses that are available to answer questions, handle transactions, and schedule appointments.
Related: 'The Market Is Hot': Here's How Much a Typical Meta Employee Makes in a Year
PlayAI'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," Meta wrote in the leaked memo.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg at Meta Connect in September 2024. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Meta has been hiring and acquiring AI talent aggressively in recent months. In June, the company made one of its biggest investments yet, pouring $14.3 billion into AI data training startup Scale AI in exchange for a 49% stake in the startup and access to new talent.
The deal brought Scale AI's former CEO, Alexandr Wang, to Meta as its new Chief AI Officer and head of a new team focused on developing superintelligence, or AI that surpasses human intelligence. Meta is paying top dollar to assemble a group of about 50 experts who will work to develop superintelligence with the aim of one day bringing it to Meta's products, including its AI smart glasses and chatbot. Scale AI's valuation more than doubled after the investment, rising from $14 billion to $29 billion.
Meta has also been poaching AI researchers and engineers from OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic for its new superintelligence team with competitive compensation, which can go up to nine figures. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, 41, announced last month that former Google DeepMind researchers Jack Rae and Pei Sun and former OpenAI staff Trapit Bansal and Hongyu Ren would be joining the superintelligence team.
Additionally, new details emerged last week that Meta is reportedly compensating former Apple engineer Ruoming Pang more than $200 million across several years to join its superintelligence effort — more than double the $74.6 million Apple CEO Tim Cook made last year.
Related: Meta Invests Billions in World's Largest Eyewear Company After Ray-Ban Smart Glasses Success
Meta stock was up over 19% year-to-date at the time of writing. The company has a market value of $1.81 trillion, making it the sixth largest in the world by market capitalization.
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