Sam Altman claims OpenAI team rejecting Meta’s mega offers
AI talent wars intensify as Meta and OpenAI compete for top minds.
Meta is intensifying efforts to recruit AI talent from OpenAI by offering signing bonuses worth up to $100 million and multi-million-pound annual salaries. However, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman claims none of the company’s top researchers have accepted the offers.
Speaking on the Uncapped podcast, Altman said Meta had approached his team with ‘giant offers’, but OpenAI’s researchers stayed loyal, believing the company has a better chance of achieving superintelligence—AI that surpasses human capabilities.
OpenAI, where the average employee reportedly earns around $1.13 million a year, fosters a mission-driven culture focused on building AI for the benefit of humanity, Altman said.
Meta, meanwhile, is assembling a 50-person Superintelligence Lab, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally overseeing recruitment. Bloomberg reported that offers from Meta have reached seven to nine figures in total compensation.
Despite the aggressive approach, Meta appears to be losing some of its own researchers to rivals. VC principal Deedy Das recently said Meta lost three AI researchers to OpenAI and Anthropic, even after offering over $2 million annually.
In a bid to acquire more talent, Meta has also invested $14.3 billion in Scale AI, securing a 49% stake and bringing CEO Alexandr Wang into its Superintelligence Lab leadership.
Meta says its AI assistant now reaches one billion monthly users, while OpenAI reports 500 million weekly active users globally.
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