Anthropic Cofounder Dismisses Meta’s $100M Talent Offers as Mission Takes Precedence

Anthropic cofounder Dario Amodei revealed Meta's aggressive recruitment tactics—including $100 million signing bonuses—failed to lure his team away from their AI safety mission. "It's not a hard choice when you're building something consequential," Amodei stated, contrasting Anthropic's retention rate with rivals losing talent to lucrative payouts.

The comments underscore an escalating war for AI expertise, where tech giants like Meta and OpenAI deploy unprecedented compensation packages. Amodei acknowledged the strategic logic behind such offers: "$100 million over four years is cheap compared to the value top engineers create." This arms race reflects the sector's breakneck scaling—"We're in an era of unprecedented growth," he observed.

Anthropic's founding in 2020 by ex-OpenAI executives stemmed from concerns about AI safety prioritization. Nearly half of OpenAI's safety team reportedly departed in recent years, highlighting the tension between commercial ambitions and ethical development in the industry's Gold rush.