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Yann LeCun to depart Meta and launch AI startup focused on 'world models'

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789 points MindBreaker2605 | 4 comments | 12 Nov 25 07:25 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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mehulashah ◴[12 Nov 25 13:21 UTC] No.45899804[source]▶
Most of the folks on this topic are focused on Meta and Yann’s departure. But, I’m seeing something different.

This is the weirdest technology market that I’ve seen. Researchers are getting rewarded with VC money to try what remains a science experiment. That used to be a bad word and now that gets rewarded with billions of dollars in valuation.

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xnx ◴[12 Nov 25 17:05 UTC] No.45902641[source]▶
> This is the weirdest technology market that I’ve seen.

The phenomenon you're seeing is well described here: "The Perfect AI Startup" (https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/newsletters/2025-09-29/the...)

“It was the most absurd pitch meeting,” one investor who met with Murati said. “She was like, ‘So we’re doing an AI company with the best AI people, but we can’t answer any questions.’”

Despite that vagueness, Murati raised $2 billion in funding...

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1. HarHarVeryFunny ◴[12 Nov 25 18:54 UTC] No.45904309[source]▶
I wonder how the investors feel now seeing what the initial product is?!

Maybe investing in all well-connected AI startups is safer than trying to pick the winners and losers?

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2. SAI_Peregrinus ◴[12 Nov 25 20:15 UTC] No.45905844[source]▶
If you have N startups, and expect at least 1 of them to make >N times what you invest in each, then investing that amount in each one of them will still be expected to have a positive ROI. If none of them "hits it big" then you lose all the investment money, but if any of them grow enormously you profit. Trying to pick winners & losers in advance is much more difficult, investing in an entire business sector is the VC version of an index fund.
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3. HarHarVeryFunny ◴[12 Nov 25 20:53 UTC] No.45906506[source]▶
Exactly.
4. iLoveOncall ◴[12 Nov 25 21:31 UTC] No.45907026[source]▶
That's fine but none of them expected to invest 2 BILLIONS to get a half-backed IaaS product as the result. That would be fine if the investment had been $10M, but that's the math isn't mathing with that level of funding.