[nrmitchi]

My mental model is looking at all of these situations as pre-emptive aquihires.

Meta can make 40 of these hires (over a number of years) and still be in a better place than feeling like they have to make a single $10B acquisition (if they could even make it at that point)

[mizzao]

Even if what you say is true, people don't add in this way. They still need to be managed, motivated, and somehow made to work together toward something of value.

Microsoft Research had hundreds of big brains for decades that all worked independently and added little of value to the business.