Meta Platforms Inc. has reportedly offered signing bonuses of up to $100 million to lure top artificial intelligence (AI) researchers from OpenAI, according to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
The revelation, made during a podcast hosted by Sam’s brother, underscores the intensifying competition among tech giants to dominate the rapidly evolving AI landscape.
Meta’s recruitment spree is part of its broader strategy to build a “superintelligence” team, a new initiative led by Alexandr Wang, former CEO of Scale AI.
The team is reportedly working in close proximity to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, signaling the project’s strategic importance.
Meta recently invested $14.3 billion in Scale AI, a data-labeling startup critical to training large AI models, further cementing its commitment to catching up with rivals like OpenAI and Google DeepMind.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s Response to Poaching by Meta: Culture Over Compensation
Sam Altman described Meta’s offers as “crazy,” noting that some packages exceed $100 million in total compensation per year.
Despite the eye-popping figures, Sam claimed that none of OpenAI’s top talent have accepted the offers so far.
He attributed this loyalty to OpenAI’s mission-driven culture and its focus on achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI).
“There are many things I respect about Meta,” Sam said, “but I don’t think they’re a company that’s great at innovation”.
Meta’s Mixed Track Record in AI
Once a leader in open-source AI development, Meta has faced internal challenges, including staff exits and delays in releasing next-generation models.
The company’s Llama models, once seen as promising, have struggled to keep pace with offerings from OpenAI, DeepMind, and China’s DeepSeek.
Meta’s pivot toward buying talent rather than building it in-house marks a significant shift in strategy.
Meta has successfully recruited Jack Rae from Google DeepMind and Johan Schalkwyk from Sesame AI.
However, attempts to poach Noam Brown from OpenAI and Koray Kavukcuoglu from Google were unsuccessful.
These mixed results reflect the high-stakes nature of the AI talent war and the limits of financial incentives when not paired with a compelling mission.
The Talent War: More Than Just Money
While Meta’s financial muscle is undeniable, industry experts argue that access to computing resources, research freedom, and organizational culture are equally critical in attracting top AI talent.
Aravind Srinivas, CEO of Perplexity, noted that one senior researcher declined a job offer because the company lacked sufficient Nvidia H100 GPUs, highlighting the importance of infrastructure alongside compensation.
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