Yann LeCun, AI Pioneer, Reportedly Leaving Meta to Launch Startup

Meta’s chief AI scientist Yann LeCun is planning to depart the company to start his own venture, according to Financial Times reports. The ‘Godfather of AI’ is in early funding talks for his new startup amid Meta’s major AI reorganization.

Key Takeaways

• Yann LeCun, Meta’s chief AI scientist, reportedly leaving to launch startup
• Financial Times reports he’s in early funding discussions
• Move comes as Meta reorganizes AI under new Superintelligence Labs division
• Former Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang now leads Meta’s AI efforts

Who is Yann LeCun?

Yann LeCun is widely recognized as one of the ‘Godfathers of AI’ for his foundational contributions to deep learning technology. Born in France in 1960, he earned his PhD from Sorbonne University where his work introduced early versions of the backpropagation algorithm – a critical breakthrough for training neural networks.

Groundbreaking Career and Inventions

After completing his doctorate, LeCun worked under Geoffrey Hinton at University of Toronto before joining AT&T Bell Labs in 1988. There, he invented the convolutional neural network (CNN), the technology that enables computers to recognize images and handwriting. His LeNet model became the foundation for systems that read handwritten digits on bank cheques throughout the 1990s.

LeCun joined New York University in 2003 as a professor and founding director of the NYU Center for Data Science. In 2013, he became Facebook’s (now Meta) first Director of AI Research, establishing the Facebook AI Research (FAIR) lab that remains a world-leading AI research center.

Prestigious Awards and Recognition

LeCun’s contributions have earned computing’s highest honors:

• 2018 Turing Award (shared with Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio)
• 2014 IEEE Neural Network Pioneer Award
• 2022 Princess of Asturias Award
• Chevalier of the French Legion of Honour
• Member of US National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and French Académie des Sciences

Vision for AI’s Future

While many focus on scaling large language models, LeCun has consistently argued that current approaches won’t lead to true intelligence. He believes AI requires new architectures and training methods to achieve genuine understanding and reasoning capabilities, often positioning him at odds with mainstream AI development approaches.

As of 2025, Yann LeCun’s net worth is estimated at approximately $5 million, primarily from his Meta position and extensive academic career.