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Meta has acquired Play AI, a startup known for ultra-realistic and emotionally rich voice generation, as part of its broader push to build its AI infrastructure. According to an internal memo reviewed by Bloomberg, the entire Play AI team will join Meta’s growing GenAI group, where their expertise in real-time speech synthesis is expected to power new voice features across platforms like WhatsApp, Instagram, and Meta’s smart devices.
The move follows a string of high-profile steps, including a major stake in Scale AI and the recruitment of top researchers from OpenAI and Google, that signal Meta’s intent to lead the next phase of AI development.
The financial details of the Play AI acquisition haven’t been disclosed, but reports of a possible deal had been circulating for a few weeks. The two companies were in talks, and speculation about a potential acquisition gained traction in late June as Play AI paused external communications and activity across its public channels. While Bloomberg has confirmed the acquisition through internal sources, neither company has issued a public statement about the deal.
(Source: PlayAI)
Play AI was founded by Hammad Syed and Mahmoud Felfel in 2021 in Mountain View, California, with the goal of making synthetic voices more expressive and adaptive than what most commercial systems offered at the time. The startup focuses on real-time voice synthesis that could convey not just words, but variations in tone, pacing, and emotional inflection. These are capabilities that it claims are essential for making AI agents sound more human in dynamic interactions.
According to the company, its engine supports over 200 voice styles and was designed for fast, low-latency streaming. Play AI positioned this as a way to enable smoother, interruptible conversations, especially in live applications like customer support bots, interactive characters, or media narration. Developers could also access the system through an API, with tools to generate and customize speech outputs without building models from scratch.
While several startups have been working on realistic AI-generated voice, Play AI framed its approach as one that balances performance with expressive range. Rather than emphasizing novelty or artistic flair, the company aimed to serve practical use cases where voice quality, response time, and control all work in tandem.
For Meta, acquiring this kind of voice infrastructure is a logical step. It gives the company an in-house engine that can power AI interactions across products like WhatsApp, Instagram, and smart glasses, where voice is increasingly central to how users engage with generative systems.
After the deal, the Play AI team will report to Johan Schalkwyk, one of Meta’s more quietly significant hires this year. Schalkwyk spent years at Google working on speech technology and helped shape the voice behind products like Google Assistant. He joined Meta after a stint at another voice startup, Sesame AI Inc.
The deal comes as interest in voice AI continues to build across the industry. SoundHound AI had been leading the public conversation, with its Houndify platform gaining traction in cars, smart devices, and restaurants.
Last month, Piper Sandler analysts projected that voice AI could become a $47 billion market by 2027, highlighting SoundHound as an early leader in the market. However, that momentum stalled a bit this week when the firm unexpectedly downgraded the stock to ‘Neutral’, a shift that reflects just how fluid and unpredictable the voice space still is.
The excitement around voice AI is echoed by investors who see it as more than just a user interface. “Voice is one of the most powerful unlocks for AI application companies,” Olivia Moore, a partner at the firm, wrote in a 2025 AI Voice Agent Update blog post. “It is the most frequent and information-dense form of communication, made programmable for the first time due to AI.”
Play AI was still early in its journey when Meta stepped in. The company had raised $21 million in a seed round just eight months earlier, backed by investors like Kindred Ventures, 500 Global, and Y Combinator. It hadn’t reached the kind of scale or maturity that usually attracts Big Tech, but the strength of its platform and team was enough to make it a fast-moving target.
The Play AI acquisition reflects how quickly Meta is moving to secure promising AI talent before it fully matures or ends up in a competitor’s orbit. Over the past year, Meta has poured resources into chips, data centers, and top-tier talent, while rolling out AI features across WhatsApp, Instagram, and beyond.
It has also reorganized its internal AI teams under a new group called Meta Superintelligence Labs, led by former Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang. The acquisition adds another building block to Meta’s growing portfolio of tools aimed at making AI more useful across its apps and devices.