Meta tries to recruit OpenAI talent with $100 million offers... and fails

In the battle to dominate the future of artificial intelligence, even the biggest paychecks aren't a guarantee of victory. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman confirmed that Meta has offered compensation packages exceeding $100 million to some of his team's top researchers, to no avail . "So far, none of our top performers have accepted ," he said in a podcast published this week.

The revelation confirms what was already being speculated in Silicon Valley: Mark Zuckerberg is in aggressive recruiting mode for his new superintelligence division, led by Alexandr Wang (former CEO of Scale AI). The goal: to steal talent from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and other key companies in the race for artificial general intelligence (AGI).

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IS THE MISSION WORTH MORE THAN MONEY?

“ Meta has started making these huge offers to a lot of people on our team—signing bonuses of $100 million or more in annual compensation,” Altman said. “ But I think they—our employees—see that we have a better chance of achieving AGI, and maybe even becoming the most valuable company in the world.”

Altman made it clear that, beyond money, what holds his team together is a culture focused on mission and innovation, something he believes Meta has failed to build. “ I don't think they're a particularly good company for innovation,” he said bluntly. While he expressed respect for some of Meta's achievements, he made it clear that paying more doesn't equate to leadership.

GOAL, BETWEEN SELECT SIGNINGS AND FAILURES

Meta's attempts include recruiting Noam Brown, a key researcher at OpenAI, and Koray Kavukcuoglu, a Google AI architect. Neither accepted the offer. Still, the company has managed to attract prominent figures such as Jack Rae (DeepMind) and Johan Schalkwyk (Sesame AI), in addition to investing heavily in Scale AI, the company founded by Wang.

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But these moves haven't been enough to generate a winning narrative. With OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic running at full speed, Meta still seems to be in the assembly phase, relying more on individual signings than a structured vision.

THE NEXT FRONTIER? AI-POWERED SOCIAL MEDIA

In a twist that could further worry Meta, Altman revealed that OpenAI is internally working on an AI-powered social network designed to deliver completely personalized feeds based on what users actually want, in contrast to the current algorithms of platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

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“ I'm interested in exploring a social media app where the content is generated by AI, not just curated by it ,” Altman said. Meanwhile, Meta is experimenting with its own version: Meta AI, a feature within its ecosystem that has generated confusion among users due to overly personalized interactions that have been shared publicly.

WHO WILL DOMINATE NEXT-GENERATION AI?

With its next version of the open model on the way, OpenAI plans to continue pressuring Meta from the technological front, while Zuckerberg tries to bolster his workforce at any cost. But if this dispute has shown anything, it's that top-tier talent can't be bought: it's persuaded. With information from TechCrunch

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