Meta Acquires Dreamer Founding Team to Accelerate Personalized AI Agents Development

Meta Hires Former Google, Stripe Executives Behind AI Startup Dreamer

Meta Platforms Inc. has hired the founders and team behind the artificial intelligence startup Dreamer, which launched earlier this year to help people create their own AI agents. The Dreamer team -- including one co-founder, Hugo Barra, who previously worked at Meta -- is joining the Meta Superintelligence Labs group under Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang, according to an internal post Wang sent Monday morning that was reviewed by Bloomberg. While the new hires will work on AI agents and associated projects at Meta, the deal did not include Dreamer's technology, a person familiar with the matter said.

Ex Stripe CTO David Singleton and Dreamer team join Meta

Founded in 2024, Dreamer allows users to build personal AI agents. All eyes are on personal agents as Meta adds tech sector veterans behind the AI start-up Dreamer to its 'superintelligence' efforts. The founding team at Dreamer includes David Singleton, who previously spent nearly seven years as Stripe's chief technology officer; Hugo Barra, the former vice-president of VR at Meta; and Nicholas Jitkoff, who has also spent a number of years in Meta's VR section. The trio is joining Meta's Superintelligence Labs. Founded in 2024, Dreamer allows users to build personal AI agents. The company launched its beta product a month ago, and has seen uptake in the thousands, it claimed. Alongside the team, Meta is licensing Dreamer's technology. Bloomberg reported that the licensing deal is non-exclusive, and that Dreamer will continue to remain its own legal entity. Sources told the publication that Dreamer's backers, which includes US-based VC Conviction, will be paid more than their investments. The company said that Superintelligence Labs lead Alexandr Wang has long been in support of Dreamer. Wang is also an investor in the start-up. The start-up demonstrated its product to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg earlier this year. In a blog, Singleton said that Dreamer and Meta share the same future, "one where billions of people have the power to create software that makes their lives better. "What matters most here isn't the early momentum, it's what Dreamer has enabled people to do," he wrote on a LinkedIn post. "People are building things they've wanted for years. They're solving real, important problems no traditional software company would ever prioritise, because they're too niche, too bespoke, too personal." Additionally, Meta has reportedly hired a number of AI researchers from the Allen Institute for AI (Ai2) and the University of Washington, including former Ai2 CEO Ali Farhadi. Farhadi stepped down as the institute's CEO earlier this month. Meta has reportedly been spending hundreds of millions in salaries to pay its newest senior level AI hires, which includes GitHub CEO Nat Friedman; co-founder of Safe Superintelligence Daniel Gross; Apple's former AI-lead Ruoming Pang; and Thinking Machines Lab's co-founder Andrew Tulloch. Although, alongside these hires, the company has cut hundreds of jobs at its Superintelligence Labs, and is reportedly weighing a 20pc workforce cut across its global operations. Earlier this month, Meta snapped up the viral 'human-free' platform for AI agents called Moltbook, developed using OpenClaw technology. In January, it snapped up the Chinese-founded start-up Manus for as much as $3bn. The Manus acquisition is currently under review by Chinese authorities for potential violations of export control laws. The New York Times reports that the Chinese government is taking actions against people linked to the acquisition. Don't miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic's digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.

Meta acqui-hires the co-founders of agentic AI startup Dreamer - SiliconANGLE

Meta acqui-hires the co-founders of agentic AI startup Dreamer Meta Platforms Inc. has just swooped on another acqui-hire, signing up the co-founders and personnel of an agentic artificial intelligence startup called Dreamer for an undisclosed price. Dreamer's team, which includes former Meta employee Hugo Barra, will go to work within Meta's Superintelligence Labs group under Chief AI Officer and former Scale AI Inc. founder Alexandr Wang, according to a report in Bloomberg. They'll be working on AI agents and associated projects, the report said. The backers of Dreamer, which has built a platform that helps people create their own AI agents, will be paid more than their investment in the startup, one person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. Under the terms of the deal, Dreamer will remain a standalone legal entity, and Meta will obtain a non-exclusive license to use its technology. Dreamer co-founder and Chief Executive David Singleton confirmed the deal in a post on X, thanking Wang for helping to build the company. Wang was an angel investor, participating in a funding round in 2024. Singleton explained that he had demonstrated Dreamer's technology to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg earlier this year. "It was clear right away that we share the same vision of the future: one where billions of people have the power to create software that makes their lives better," he said. "The idea behind Dreamer is simple: every person should have the power to create software that makes their lives better," Barra added in his own X post. AI agents are autonomous systems that can perform tasks on behalf of humans with minimal supervision, and they have become a key part of Meta's AI ambitions. In January, Zuckerberg said that his team has made "quite profound" improvements to AI agents recently, and are using them with coding and other tasks. Wang also spoke about the impact of AI agents during an interview earlier this year, saying they provide an opportunity to "give a more powerful version of AI to every single person in the world." Meta is spending a lot of money on AI agents. In December, it announced it was spending $2 billion to acquire a startup called Manus, which has developed autonomous agents that can use a web browser to perform tasks like booking a hotel room and reserving a table at a restaurant. At the time, Meta said it plans to integrate Manus' technology in its own applications and services. More recently, it swooped to acquire a startup called Moltbook, which operates a strangely fascinating Reddit-like social media network for AI agents. Dreamer was founded by a team of technology veterans who possess a wealth of experience, and not just in AI. Singleton previously served as the Chief Technology Officer of Stripe Inc. and as vice president of engineering in Google LLC's Android unit. Barra also worked on Google's Android team, before joining Xiaomi Corp. and then Meta, where he led the company's virtual reality unit. He left Meta in 2021. A third co-founder is Dreamer's Chief Design Officer Nicholas Jitkoff, who formerly helped to design Google's Chrome OS operating system.

Meta hires former Google, Stripe executives behind AI startup Dreamer - The Economic Times

The Dreamer team -- including one co-founder, Hugo Barra, who previously worked at Meta -- is joining the Meta Superintelligence Labs group under Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang, according to an internal post Wang sent Monday morning that was reviewed by Bloomberg. The new hires will work on AI agents and associated projects at MetaMeta Platforms Inc. has hired the founders and team behind the artificial intelligence startup Dreamer, which launched earlier this year to help people create their own AI agents. The Dreamer team -- including one co-founder, Hugo Barra, who previously worked at Meta -- is joining the Meta Superintelligence Labs group under Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang, according to an internal post Wang sent Monday morning that was reviewed by Bloomberg. The new hires will work on AI agents and associated projects at Meta While terms of the arrangement were not disclosed, Dreamer backers will be paid back more than their investment, according to a person familiar with the matter. Dreamer remains its own legal entity, and the deal included a non-exclusive license for Meta to use Dreamer's technology, the person added. In a post on LinkedIn, Dreamer co-founder David Singleton confirmed the deal and thanked Wang, who is an investor in Dreamer, for his help as they built the company. Singleton also added that he showed Zuckerberg the product earlier this year. "It was clear right away that we share the same vision of the future: one where billions of people have the power to create software that makes their lives better," Singleton wrote. AI agents, or autonomous bots that can complete tasks on behalf of humans, have materialized as a key focus for Meta, which is spending aggressively on AI talent and infrastructure. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said on Meta's last earnings call in January that improvements to AI agents have been "quite profound," and that engineers at the company are using them to help with coding and other tasks. Wang, too, spoke about agents during an interview in India earlier this year, saying that they provide "some of the greatest opportunity to actually give a more powerful version of AI to every single person in the world." "Our conviction in agents is stronger than ever," Wang wrote in his note Monday announcing the new hires. Meta is "building agents that are truly personalized and always-on, with the ability to integrate across surfaces and wearables." Meta already agreed to spend more than $2 billion to acquire Manus, a popular AI agent company, last December, with plans to deploy it to businesses that use Meta's various apps and services. It also said it would acquire Moltbook, the social network for AI agents, earlier this month. A Meta spokesperson declined to comment on the Dreamer deal. Dreamer was founded by a collection of tech veterans, including Singleton, who was formerly the chief technology officer at financial technology firm Stripe and vice president of engineering on Google's Android product. Barra also worked as a VP of product management for Android at Google, and later joined Meta from Xiaomi Corp. to lead the company's virtual reality division. He departed Meta in 2021. Dreamer's chief design officer, Nicholas Jitkoff, was formerly a leading designer for Google Chrome OS. All three are joining Meta, according to Wang's post. Dreamer previously raised $56 million at a $500 million valuation, Bloomberg News reported in 2024. "The biggest challenge you have as a startup in the AI space is that it's shifting sands," said Nikesh Arora, chief executive officer of the cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks Inc. and an early backer of Dreamer, in an interview Monday. "You don't know tomorrow what functionality you're building is going to get subsumed by the model which could totally destroy you out of existence." Joining Meta could give them a bigger platform for their technology while it's hot, he added. "Nobody's quite sure who's going to win in the end."

Meta Recruits Dreamer Team to Scale Personalized AI Agents | PYMNTS.com

In addition, Dreamer is licensing its technology to Meta, according to the post. Meta did not immediately reply to PYMNTS' request for comment. According to the post, Dreamer released the beta a month ago and has already seen thousands of people use it to build personal, intelligent software. These users have built thousands of agents that perform tasks such as managing email, creating learning tools and helping users achieve health goals. "[Meta Chief AI Officer] Alexandr Wang was helpful to us from the very beginning, and when we showed Dreamer to Mark Zuckerberg and Nat Friedman at Meta earlier this year, it was clear right away that we see the same future -- one where billions of people have the power to create software that makes their lives better," the Dreamer team said in the post. "We're thrilled to continue accelerating this mission at Meta Superintelligence Labs." Bloomberg reported Monday that Wang announced in an internal post that the Dreamer team is joining Meta Superintelligence Labs and that they will work on AI agents and associated projects. "Our conviction in agents is stronger than ever," Wang said in the post, per the report. He added that Meta is "building agents that are truly personalized and always-on, with the ability to integrate across surfaces and wearables." Meta created Meta Superintelligence Labs in June as a new business unit that would include teams working on the company's foundation models, product, Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) and the next generation of its models. It was reported March 10 that Meta acquired Moltbook, the Reddit-like social network built for AI agents that made headlines in late January, and that Moltbook co-founders Matt Schlicht and Ben Parr would join Meta Superintelligence Labs. "The Moltbook team joining MSL opens up new ways for AI agents to work for people and businesses," a Meta spokesperson told TechCrunch at the time.