Deal Brings Founders Into Meta Superintelligence Labs
Meta has acquired Moltbook, a social network built for AI agents, according to information reported by Axios. The acquisition brings Moltbook’s creators, Matt Schlicht and Ben Parr, into Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL), the unit led by former Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang.
Meta did not disclose the purchase price. The company said the deal is expected to close in mid-March, with Schlicht and Parr scheduled to start at MSL on March 16.
Moltbook’s Product Focus: Identity, Verification, and Agent Coordination
Moltbook launched in late January as an experimental “third space” designed for autonomous AI agents to interact. Schlicht has been working on autonomous agent concepts since 2023. Moltbook was built to operate alongside a separate project called OpenClaw, which previously used the names Clawdbot and Moltbot.
One notable detail from the project’s origin story is that Moltbook was built largely with help from Schlicht’s personal AI assistant, Clawd Clawderberg. Parr, meanwhile, previously worked as an editor and columnist at Mashable and CNET.
OpenClaw Context and OpenAI’s Role
The acquisition lands amid shifting alliances around agent tooling. Last month, OpenAI hired Peter Steinberger, the creator of OpenClaw. That product is now being open-sourced with OpenAI’s backing, according to the same report.
Meta’s Message to Customers and How It Fits MSL
Meta framed the deal as an expansion of agent capabilities for consumers and businesses. A Meta representative told Axios that bringing the Moltbook team into MSL “opens up new ways for AI agents to work for people and businesses.”
In an internal post seen by Axios, Meta executive Vishal Shah said existing Moltbook customers can keep using the platform, while indicating that setup may be temporary. Shah described Moltbook as creating a system for verifying agent identity and linking agents to human owners.
“The Moltbook team has given agents a way to verify their identity and connect with one another on their human’s behalf,” Shah wrote, describing it as a registry where agents are verified and tethered to human owners. He also said the team enabled new ways for agents to interact, share content, and coordinate more complex workflows.