Meta strengthens its AI hardware team under Rui Xu's leadership

Meta Strengthens Its AI Hardware Team Under Rui Xu's Leadership

Meta Superintelligence Labs, led by Alexander Wang, is ramping up its efforts in the field of artificial intelligence hardware. The company has recently hired Rui Xu, an experienced engineer, to lead this initiative. This development suggests that Meta is exploring AI devices beyond its well-known smart glasses.

Alexander Wang, at the helm of Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL), has expressed his ambition to create a personalized AI agent that could operate across multiple devices. This new dedicated hardware team, under Xu's leadership, marks a deeper commitment from Meta to the development of AI-powered devices.

Meta is already a major player in the realm of smart glasses and virtual reality headsets, produced by its Reality Labs division. However, the current initiative, led by Meta Superintelligence Labs, indicates that Meta is looking to expand its portfolio of AI devices. This division, announced last year, is at the heart of this new strategy.

According to internal reports, some engineers from Reality Labs have been transferred to MSL to work on prototyping AI software on existing Reality Labs hardware. This close collaboration between the two divisions highlights the importance of this initiative for Meta.

Rui Xu, recently recruited by Meta, was previously in charge of hardware at Dreamer, a startup specializing in AI agents. The founding team of Dreamer was acquired by Meta last month. Prior to that, Xu served as the Chief Operating Officer at K-Scale, a robotics startup that ceased operations last year. Nat Friedman, who leads the product and applied research division at MSL, had invested in K-Scale through the AI Grant program he co-founded.

Rui Xu's experience extends beyond Dreamer and K-Scale. He has also worked on smart devices at ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, where he led a lab that shipped millions of units in China. His background also includes management positions at smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi, laptop maker Lenovo, and internet giant Tencent.

Meta has declined to comment on these developments, and Rui Xu did not respond to a request for comment via email.

In the current landscape, tech companies like OpenAI are striving to develop personal devices that natively integrate AI, beyond simple smartphones. During a podcast appearance in February, Alexander Wang stated that Meta envisions a future where every individual would have a personalized AI agent operating through a "constellation" of devices.

"You'll want your personal agent to be with you in multiple ways, always active, seeing what you see, hearing what you hear," Wang explained during the podcast. He also added that the coming months would see a significant acceleration of their efforts in this area.