Meta's $100M Bids Fail to Lure OpenAI Talent: Sam Altman

Post by : Amit

Photo:Reuters

June 18, 2025, SAN FRANCISCO – OpenAI CEO Sam Altman revealed that Meta offered signature bonuses of up to $100 million, along with substantial annual compensation, in an aggressive bid to recruit top talent from OpenAI—but none of his core team accepted.

Spilling details on the “Uncapped with Jack Altman” podcast, Altman explained that despite Meta’s high stakes and $15 billion investment in Scale AI, its efforts to woo OpenAI researchers “haven’t worked as well as they hoped” . He suggested that such pay-heavy tactics could undermine company culture, emphasizing that OpenAI’s employees are drawn by the mission to build AGI and its innovative mindset—not just compensation.

Altman expressed confidence that OpenAI remains the top pick for those aiming to contribute significantly to frontier AI. He contrasted its culture with Meta’s, noting that Meta is “not great at innovation,” while OpenAI is seen as having a better chance of delivering superintelligence.

Meta, now valued at around $1.8 trillion and actively building its “superintelligence” team under former Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang, has yet to publicly respond.
The episode highlights the increasingly fierce competition for elite AI talent, a field with fewer than 1,000 top researchers worldwide, with offers reaching levels more familiar in sports.

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