Why was Mark Zuckerberg willing to spend US$14.3 billion on Alexandr Wang?

Because of one thing: AI Native.

Decades ago, when internet companies were rising, telecom operators thought it was "just a web page". As it turned out, the internet ended up upending their entire industry.

AI today is walking the same path.

Mark Zuckerberg dares to bet big not because of a short-term opportunity, but because he sees certainty. To become truly AI native, a company needs more than technology. It needs a complete overhaul, from organisation structure to company culture.

Among the traditional internet giants, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, Google and Apple are known together as the Big 5. Today, only Meta is still steered by its founder.

There's a key difference here:

Founders focus on long-term vision and dare to break the old rules. Managers focus more on stability and KPIs.

It isn't a question of ability. It's that the role in the organisation shapes the way you think.

Mark Zuckerberg was willing to spend US$14.3 billion to bring in Alexandr Wang. That's a bet on the future. Look at Apple instead: even with a broad enough mind, Tim Cook would find it hard to get the board to approve a "sky-high hire" like this. Tim Cook's annual pay is in the tens of millions of US dollars, and Apple's governance is bound to be more conservative and more focused on shareholders' short-term interests.

Only people with vision are willing to break the balance like this. Because they understand that only by reshaping the organisation can a traditional company truly become AI native.

The internet era eliminated a whole wave of traditional businesses. Now it's AI's turn. Many companies haven't even caught up with an internet-era organisation, let alone AI.

In this era, technology matters, but what matters more is a founder's vision and resolve. Only a founder dares to "ignore the doubts inside", redefine the whole company, and give it a chance to keep standing through different eras.