Menlo Park, July 2025 — In another aggressive push into AI, Meta has acquired PlayAI, a voice technology startup known for its multilingual voice cloning and low-latency speech synthesis. The move follows Meta’s $14.3 billion buyout of ScaleAI earlier this year — and further signals its intent to lead the AI infrastructure race.
Formerly known as PlayHT, PlayAI specializes in real-time voice generation and programmable voice agents. With this acquisition, the entire PlayAI team will join Meta and report to Johan Schalkwyk, who recently came from Sesame AI.
The goal? Supercharge Meta’s AI ecosystem — from Meta AI and AI Characters to Quest headsets, Ray-Ban smart glasses, and creator tools for synthetic audio.
“Meta’s mission to build superintelligent AI starts with world-class infrastructure and real-time interfaces — PlayAI fits right in,” said a source close to the deal.
While the financials weren’t disclosed, the move strengthens Meta’s talent pool and gives it a deeper edge in conversational interfaces — a space that’s rapidly becoming the next frontier for consumer AI.
The acquisition also opens new doors for developers. Meta plans to give third-party access to PlayAI’s voice APIs — enabling apps to build custom agents, characters, and assistants with human-like voices.
All of this comes as Meta ramps up its Superintelligence Labs, now led by former ScaleAI CEO Alexandr Wang, and pours resources into building what Zuckerberg calls the next generation of “AI-native products.”
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