Yahoo's head of multimodal AI leaves Meta to start a new company

Ryan Spoon, who led Meta's multimodal AI team responsible for Muse Spark, Voice Mode, Muse Image, and Muse Video, is leaving to start a new company. He announced the move this morning, saying he will build what he calls "the TBD lab" alongside cofounders Mark and Alex.

Spoon's departure marks the first visible exit from the wave of high-profile AI talent that jumped to Meta roughly a year ago. The timing signals a pattern that may accelerate over the coming months: many of those executives and researchers received equity packages worth nine and ten figures. As their one-year vesting windows close and bank accounts settle, the calculus shifts. A successful exit with liquid wealth changes the risk profile of starting a company. For someone like Spoon, the bet becomes less risky—he has downside protection and can raise capital relatively easily, even if the new venture stumbles.

Spoon framed his departure in deliberately vague terms, saying he felt "increasingly drawn to a problem that will matter deeply to humanity's future, yet remains largely underexplored." He did not specify what that problem is. The ambiguity leaves room for speculation, though the phrasing suggests something beyond incremental multimodal AI work.

This exit is unlikely to be the last. Over the next one to two months, expect similar announcements from others who arrived at Meta during the same talent acquisition wave. The dynamics are now in place: wealth unlocked, year-one fatigue setting in, and the founder itch becoming harder to ignore.