Meta, led by Mark Zuckerberg, is forming a new hardware division and has brought on a veteran engineer to head the initiative. As reported by Business Insider, this project falls under Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL), the company’s prominent AI unit established last year under the leadership of former Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang.

The new report indicates that a separate hardware team will be created within MSL, signaling that the company is moving into new categories of AI-powered devices.

The initiative has reportedly not been publicly announced yet, but some Reality Labs employees have already moved to MSL to develop prototype software for the new division using Reality Labs hardware. The two divisions are currently believed to be collaborating closely on the project.

Reports that Meta's AI division is developing hardware devices emerge as rivals such as OpenAI race to create their own AI-first products. The ChatGPT developer has acquired IO, the hardware startup founded by former Apple designer Jony Ive, and is collaborating with him to launch ChatGPT-enabled devices as early as next year.

As Meta ramps up its AI hardware efforts, it has hired Rui Xu to lead the MSL hardware division. Xu brings experience from Dreamer, which Meta acqui-hired, and has held senior roles at K-Scale, ByteDance, Xiaomi, Lenovo, and Tencent. Nat Friedman, MSL’s products lead, had previously invested in K-Scale through his AI Grant program.

This move positions Meta to compete with rivals like OpenAI, which is developing AI-first devices, including ChatGPT-enabled hardware in collaboration with former Apple designer Jony Ive.