Dave Wehner, Meta's chief strategy officer and former CFO, is leaving the company after 14 years to become chief financial officer of Fireworks, an AI inference startup. He announced the move on Friday. Fireworks was valued at $17.5 billion in its July funding round.
Dave Wehner is leaving Meta to become chief financial officer of Fireworks, an AI inference startup. He announced the move Friday, ending a 14-year run at the social media giant that included more than eight years as CFO.
What was Dave Wehner's role at Meta?
The Information first reported the move Friday evening. Wehner joined Facebook in 2012 as vice president of corporate finance and business planning. He became CFO in 2014 and moved into the chief strategy officer role in 2022.
“Fireworks has the right mission for the moment,” Wehner wrote on X. He thanked Mark Zuckerberg in the post and said he was “incredibly optimistic” about Meta’s future. He said he had known Fireworks chief executive Lin Qiao for a long time and wanted to join a founder-led growth company.
“I see AI as the most consequential technology shift of my lifetime,” he wrote. “I’m excited to get to work and help build a business at the center of it.”
Qiao told CNBC that Wehner will scale the company’s finances and operations. She also wrote about the hire on LinkedIn on Friday.
“Dave told me he wanted to get back to a smaller company where he could build toward a big impact again,” Qiao wrote.
Meta chief operating officer Javier Olivan also gave CNBC a statement praising Wehner. “Dave helped guide Meta through tremendous growth and complexity over 14 years, and brought disciplined thinking to some of our hardest company-level decisions,” Olivan said.
What does Fireworks do?
Former Meta and Google employees founded Fireworks in 2022. The company’s platform lets developers customize and run open AI models for their businesses. In July, it raised $1.5 billion at a $17.5 billion valuation. The round was led by Atreides Management, Index Ventures and TCV. Nvidia and Sequoia Capital are also backers.
What is Fireworks valued at?
The company’s next round is already drawing attention. Business Insider reported in October that Fireworks was in early talks to raise at a valuation of $30 billion to $40 billion. The Information now reports that the company will start a new round next week, citing people familiar with the matter. According to The Information, the company is targeting a valuation of at least $30 billion. TNW has not independently verified either report.
Other inference startups have also raised large rounds in recent weeks. Fal raised at a $16 billion valuation, and Baseten has a round in the works.
Wehner’s earlier career includes stints at Zynga, where he was CFO, and at the investment bank Allen & Co., where he was a managing director, according to The Information. He also sits on the board of Aurora Innovation, which makes self-driving technology for trucks.
Este artículo fue escrito con la asistencia de IA.
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