Ex-OpenAI Whiz Jumps Ship to Lead Meta’s AI Lab—Tech Arms Race Heats Up
Meta just poached a top AI mind from OpenAI—and the timing couldn't be more strategic.
### The Brain Drain Accelerates
Another day, another high-profile defection in Silicon Valley's AI talent wars. This time it's a former OpenAI researcher taking the reins as chief scientist at Meta's newly unveiled AI lab. Because nothing says 'innovation' like recycling your competitors' human capital.
### Zuckerberg's AI Gambit
The move signals Meta's desperate push to stay relevant in the generative AI gold rush. While they're busy hiring, their metaverse division keeps burning cash faster than a meme coin rug pull. Priorities, right?
### The Real Winners?
Tech recruiters. With AI salaries now rivaling NFL draft picks, someone's getting rich—and it's probably not the retail investors piling into AI stocks at all-time highs.
Is Meta finally winning over OpenAI talent?
Earlier in July, Zuckerberg revealed that Meta intends to dedicate “hundreds of billions of dollars” to its AI infrastructure, adding that “the next few years are going to be very exciting!”
This latest hiring surge follows the underwhelmed developer response to the Llama 4 models released in April, prompting a strategic overhaul to more effectively challenge rivals such as OpenAI and Google.
Altman says Meta offered $100 million to his employees. Meta denies it.
WIRED reported that Meta has made at least ten of these offers to OpenAI employees. One senior researcher was asked to be chief scientist but turned it down, according to people involved. They also said the equity in the deal vests right away in the first year.
“That’s about how much it WOULD take for me to go work at Meta,” said an OpenAI staffer who spoke on condition of anonymity. Others said they compared the financial incentives with the chance to shape projects at Meta versus OpenAI, with several feeling their contributions would be greater at OpenAI.
Meta spokesperson Andy Stone challenged the figures. “These statements are untrue—the size and structure of these compensation packages have been misrepresented,” he said. “Some people have chosen to greatly exaggerate what’s happening for their own purposes.”
A senior Meta engineer confirmed a salary of roughly $850,000 per year—substantial but small compared with the new offers. Engineers one level above (E7) average about $1.54 million annually, based on user data from Levels.FYI.
Recently, on “Lenny’s Podcast”, Anthropic cofounder Benjamin Mann revealed that his team wasn’t sways by Meta’s generous recruitment packages.
He emphasized that Anthropic’s workforce is driven by the company’s purpose. “It’s not a hard choice,” Mann said, adding that while other AI firms lost people to big paydays, Anthropic has held onto its experts.
Mann added that huge offers could be reasonable based on individual circumstances. His comments underscore a fierce talent war among leading tech firms, with signing bonuses reportedly climbing as high as $100 million. “I’m pretty sure it’s real,” Mann added.
Whether or not Zuckerberg has made big offers to Altman’s employees, in the past few years, half of OpenAI’s safety team has left. Last year, former researcher Daniel Kokotajlo told Fortune that “people who are primarily focused on thinking about AGI safety and preparedness are being increasingly marginalized.”
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