Hugo Barra has rejoined Meta in a significant move that highlights the company's urgent pivot toward artificial intelligence. Barra, who previously served as a top executive in Meta's virtual reality division during his first tenure at the firm, returns alongside his co-founders and colleagues from Dreamer, a startup he launched in 2024. This acquisition by hiring brings key leaders such as CEO David Singleton, formerly Stripe's technology chief, and Nicholas Jitkoff, a former senior design director at Figma, into the fold. Barra will lead efforts within Meta's Superintelligence Labs, directed by former Scale AI chief Alexandr Wang. This strategic shift comes as Meta grapples with competition from industry giants like Google and OpenAI. Although Meta is preparing to invest up to $135 billion in capital expenditures this year, primarily to build AI infrastructure, the company is still refining its strategy to effectively challenge the leaders in generative AI. The recent disappointment surrounding the Meta Llama 4 model family, coupled with the massive $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI, underscores the high stakes involved. Dreamer has focused on the rapidly evolving sector of AI agents. Last month, the company released a beta version of its core product, which Barra described as a new operating system for AI agents and applications built around them. Barra noted that this transition requires a fundamental rethinking of current computing platforms, drawing parallels to previous shifts in mobile operating systems like Android and ChromeOS, as well as the software powering Meta's Quest virtual reality headsets. The company aims to empower billions of people to create software that improves their daily lives through these advanced agentic tools. In a notable departure from a traditional acquisition, Meta is not purchasing Dreamer outright. Instead, the social media giant has hired Dreamer's staff under a licensing arrangement to integrate the company's AI technology. Meta declined to disclose specific financial terms of the deal. This return also marks a symbolic shift in Meta's corporate priorities. While Barra was once central to Meta's early VR investments after the company acquired Oculus for $2 billion in 2014, the firm has recently deprioritized virtual reality in favor of AI. Earlier this year, Meta laid off 10% of its Reality Labs workforce, with most cuts affecting VR initiatives such as the Quest headset line and the Horizon Worlds metaverse platform. The division is now redirecting its focus toward AI-powered glasses and wearable devices. Upon his arrival, Barra expressed confidence in the new direction. He will collaborate closely with Wang to accelerate Meta's AI progress. Dreamer co-founder David Singleton emphasized that the shared vision between the teams was immediately apparent when they demonstrated their technology to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg earlier this year. The partnership represents a strategic realignment for Meta, moving away from the immersive virtual worlds of the past to the intelligent, agent-driven future it now seeks to lead.