Elon Musk Lures Top Meta Engineers to xAI—No ’Insane’ Paychecks Required
Elon Musk's xAI just pulled off a Silicon Valley heist—snagging senior Meta engineers without breaking the bank. Here's why talent is voting with their feet.
The brain drain accelerates
Meta's loss is xAI's gain as engineers ditch Zuckerberg's metaverse play for Musk's AI moonshot. No golden handcuffs needed—just a compelling vision (and maybe some Twitter drama).
Compensation 2.0: Equity > Salary
Forget seven-figure packages. These defections prove that when Big Tech's compensation arms race meets actual ambition, talent follows the real innovation—not the highest bidder.
The new recruiting playbook
Musk's move exposes the soft underbelly of FAANG retention strategies: When your stock price flatlines (looking at you, Meta), even free kombucha can't keep top talent from jumping ship.
Another day, another tech exodus—but this one's different. It's not about money, it's about betting on the future. And right now, the smart money's on Musk. (Though let's be real—the 'smart money' also bought Dogecoin at ATH.)
Musk’s claims emerge amid intensifying tech talent war
xAI’s swift deployment has impressed industry observers amid an escalating contest among major AI organizations, including OpenAI, Google, and Meta, to attract premier researchers.
Meta has broadened the AI arm and earmarked $14 billion in funding for Scale AI. In June, Meta launched Superintelligence Labs as a research hub designed to convene top experts in the domain.
Sam Altman, OpenAI’s chief executive, has claimed that Meta dangled compensation packages reaching $100 million to lure his team, a claim Meta disputes.
According to WIRED, more than ten such recruitment offers were extended to OpenAI staff. In one case, a seasoned researcher was even tapped for a chief scientist position but opted not to accept.
Moreover, any shares or stock options Meta promised to those new hires WOULD become 100% theirs after one year on the job.
However, Anthropic’s employees remained unswayed by Meta’s lavish incentives, according to co-founder Benjamin Mann. He stressed that Anthropic employees prioritize the organization’s mission over compensation.
Cryptopolitan recently reported that Meta and Microsoft collectively saw their market capitalization climb by approximately $550 billion within a single day. This beats Costco’s entire valuation by $140 billion and outpaces Netflix’s market worth by about $50 billion.
In early trades in Europe on Thursday, Meta’s shares surged 12.2% in Frankfurt and Microsoft’s advanced 9% following a modest pullback late Wednesday. That momentum helped push S&P 500 futures up 1% and Nasdaq futures by 1.3% ahead of the U.S. open.
Meta surpassed second-quarter estimates, delivering earnings of $7.14 per share versus a $5.89 consensus, and generating $47.52 billion in revenue against the $44.83 billion forecast. For Q3, the company anticipates revenue in the $47.5 billion to $50.5 billion range, exceeding the consensus view of $46.2 billion.
It also raised its full-year expense guidance to a range of $114 billion–$118 billion, implying a year-over-year cost uptick of roughly 20%–24%.
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