Meta's TBD Lab research unit has 'a few dozen' researchers and engineers, CFO says

Meta's TBD Lab unit comprises "a few dozen" researchers and engineers developing its next-generation of foundation models, the company's finance chief Susan Li said on Tuesday.

The team name, TBD Lab, was a placeholder that had "stuck" and felt appropriate, as much of what the team would build was yet to be precisely shaped or determined, Li told investors at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology conference.

"We conceive of it as sort of a pretty small, few-dozen-people, very talent-dense set of folks."


TBD Lab is focused on pushing models to the AI frontier over the next one to two years, she added.

Last month, The Information reported about Meta dividing its Superintelligence Labs into four groups - the TBD Lab, short for "to be determined"; a products team including the Meta AI assistant; an infrastructure team; and the Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) lab, which focuses on long-term research.

Meta reorganized its AI efforts under Superintelligence Labs earlier this year following senior staff departures and lukewarm reception for its latest open-source Llama 4 model.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally led an aggressive talent acquisition, floating offers for startups and directly courting prospects on WhatsApp with million-dollar pay packages.

"We've established Meta Superintelligence Labs, which includes our foundations, product, and FAIR teams as well as a new lab that is focused on developing the next generation of our models," Zuckerberg said in July.