In a significant development for the global artificial intelligence community, Yann LeCun, the Chief AI Scientist at Meta, has announced his departure from the social media giant after a 12-year tenure. The renowned researcher revealed his plans in a November LinkedIn post, stating his intention to build a startup dedicated to his long-running Advanced Machine Intelligence (AMI) research program.
From Corporate Leader to Entrepreneur: A Notable Shift
LeCun's move marks a notable pivot from his previously stated disinterest in the business side of technology. He had famously declared in a public conversation with Tesla CEO Elon Musk in May last year, "I'm a scientist, not a business or product person." His decision to now launch an independent venture underscores a major career shift. The startup aims to continue the AMI research he pursued with colleagues at Facebook AI Research (FAIR), New York University (NYU), and other institutions.
The core mission of his new company is ambitious: to pioneer the next revolution in AI by creating systems that understand the physical world, possess persistent memory, can reason, and plan complex actions. LeCun expressed immense pride in founding and directing FAIR, calling it his "proudest non-technical accomplishment." He will remain at Meta until the end of the year to ensure a smooth transition.
Behind the Exit: A Change in Meta's AI Priorities?
Industry observers link LeCun's departure to strategic changes within Meta's AI division. Reports suggest his exit became "inevitable" following Meta's $15 billion acquisition of ScaleAI and the appointment of its founder, Alexandr Wang, to lead Meta's new "superintelligence" division. A post on X by Hyperbolic CEO Yuchen Jin in November 2025 alleged that Wang's appointment made him Meta's highest-paid employee ever and that LeCun was asked to report to him.
This restructuring reportedly signaled a shift in Meta's focus—away from LeCun's preferred foundational, open research and toward rapid, product-driven development. Jin's post claimed, "Yann never believed in LLM-to-AGI. Zuck's patience ran out," pointing to LeCun's well-known skepticism about large language models (LLMs) being the sole path to Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).
Future Collaborations and Broad Impact
Despite the parting of ways, the relationship between LeCun and Meta will continue. In his announcement, LeCun thanked Meta executives including Mark Zuckerberg for their support and confirmed that Meta will be a partner to his new startup. He believes that pursuing AMI in an independent entity will maximize its broad impact across various economic sectors, some of which align with Meta's interests and many that do not.
LeCun's exit from one of the world's most influential AI labs concludes a landmark chapter. His new venture will be closely watched as it seeks to challenge the current LLM-dominated paradigm and push toward more capable, reasoning AI systems. The move highlights the ongoing tension between pure scientific research and commercial product imperatives in the fiercely competitive AI landscape.
