Meta's Dave Wehner Joins Fireworks as CFO at $17.5 Billion AI Startup
Updated
Updated · CNBC · Nov 7
Meta's Dave Wehner Joins Fireworks as CFO at $17.5 Billion AI Startup
3 articles · Updated · CNBC · Nov 7
Summary
Dave Wehner is leaving Meta after 14 years to become CFO of Fireworks, the four-year-old AI startup said Friday.
Fireworks, valued at $17.5 billion in a July Series D round, said Wehner will scale its finances and operations as it builds an open-model inference and training platform.
Wehner, Meta's CFO from 2014 to 2022 and now chief strategy officer, said he is increasingly bullish on Fireworks and sees AI as the defining technology shift of his lifetime.
Business Insider reported Fireworks is already in early talks to raise again at a possible $30 billion to $40 billion valuation, underscoring investor appetite for AI infrastructure.
The move comes as Fireworks expands despite operational risks: in October, it disclosed unauthorized use of internal credentials affecting a limited number of customer accounts.