Explained: What is the superintelligence lab Meta is building?

On Thursday, Meta unveiled a $14.3 billion investment and partnership that will be the core of a new artificial intelligence research lab dedicated to the pursuit of “superintelligence,” a swing-for-the-fences effort in the global technology race.

The new lab will be led by Alexandr Wang, a co-founder and the CEO of Scale AI. Meta invested in his startup as part of an agreement to bring Wang to the company.

Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has been offering compensation packages as high as $100 million to leading researchers across…