Meta acquires WaveForms AI to boost Llama 4.5 and AI agent development
Meta is significantly ramping up its artificial intelligence endeavors, signaling a major strategic shift with its recent acquisition of WaveForms AI, an audio AI startup specializing in systems capable of recognizing and mimicking human emotions in speech. This move is part of a broader internal reorganization and investment surge following what the company has termed recent setbacks in its AI development. The acquisition directly supports Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s ambitious vision for a future where every individual interacts daily with their own personalized AI.
WaveForms AI, which first emerged in December after securing $40 million in a funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz, brings specialized expertise to Meta’s growing AI portfolio. The startup was co-founded by Alexis Conneau, an individual with a notable background in audio research, having spent nearly eight years at Meta before leading audio projects for OpenAI’s GPT-4o. Joining him was Coralie Lemaitre, who previously contributed to business strategy within Google’s advertising division. Both Conneau and Lemaitre are now integrating into Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL), a newly consolidated AI hub overseen by Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang and former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman.
The WaveForms deal underscores Meta’s intensified focus on audio AI, a strategic area the company has been bolstering through other key hires and acquisitions. Recent additions include Johan Schalkwyk, who formerly headed the machine learning team at voice AI startup Sesame, and the acquisition last month of PlayAI, another voice AI specialist. These concerted efforts highlight Meta’s commitment to developing sophisticated AI that can deeply understand and interact with human speech and emotion.
At the heart of Meta’s revamped AI strategy is the consolidation of its diverse AI initiatives under the Meta Superintelligence Labs umbrella. Within MSL, a dedicated unit known internally as “TBD Lab” (short for “to be determined”) is spearheading the development of the next generation of Meta’s foundational Llama models. Reports suggest this includes models referred to as “Llama 4.5” and “Llama 4.X,” signifying a substantial leap forward. TBD Lab has actively recruited top researchers from rival technology companies and is currently led by Jack Rae, a recent hire from Alphabet’s Google.
According to an internal memo from Alexandr Wang, TBD Lab is collaborating closely with other AI teams on upcoming model releases, focusing specifically on advancing reasoning capabilities and building sophisticated AI agents. This new organizational structure is designed to facilitate more ambitious technical goals, enable parallel development streams, and accelerate the delivery of high-performance AI results. The strategic reorientation, marked by significant talent acquisition and a clear development roadmap for its Llama models, positions Meta to aggressively pursue its vision of creating more intelligent, emotionally aware, and broadly capable artificial intelligence systems.