Alexandr Wang's Muse hit 5 million downloads faster than ChatGPT. Some Meta employees don't like the special treatment of his hires.

Minh Connors | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Meta has a hit AI app, and a 29-year-old billionaire is getting the credit. The Meta Muse app, which performs multi-step tasks and runs actions in the background for users, passed 5 million U.S. downloads 22 days after its Sept. 8 launch, according to Mashable. And Meta’s stock is up nearly 20% since Muse debuted.

Now all eyes are on Muse mastermind Alexandr Wang, the MIT dropout who co-founded data-labeling startup Scale AI and became one of the world’s youngest self-made billionaires. Mark Zuckerberg recruited him in June 2025 after Meta invested $14 billion for a 49% stake in Scale. Wang is now Meta’s first Gen Z senior executive, the Wall Street Journal reports.

You wouldn’t know it looking at him. Wang wore a thrift-store camo tee and Crocs onstage at Meta’s developer conference and flooded X with Muse memes, some showing the app’s blob mascot in suggestive poses. Wang’s actions have irked employees, particularly over sky-high pay packages for his elite TBD Lab hires. “It’s going to ruffle some feathers,” Scale board member Mike Volpi tells the Journal.

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