Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, recently alleged that Meta, led by Mark Zuckerberg, is attempting to recruit top AI specialists from his company by offering unprecedented signing bonuses of $100 million (£74 million). This revelation comes as the competition for talent in the expanding artificial intelligence sector becomes increasingly fierce.
Altman shared his insights during a podcast conversation on Tuesday, though Meta has not verified these claims. OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, indicated it had no further comments beyond Altman’s statements.
“They started making these giant offers to a lot of people on our team – $100 million signing bonuses, more than that comp [compensation] per year,” he stated on the Uncapped podcast hosted by his brother, Jack. “It is crazy. I’m really happy that, at least so far, none of our best people have decided to take them up on that.”
He expressed concern over the implications of such strategies, stating, “I think the strategy of a tonne of upfront, guaranteed comp, and that being the reason you tell someone to join … the degree to which they’re focusing on that, and not the work and not the mission – I don’t think that’s going to set up a great culture.”
Recently, Meta announced a $15 billion initiative directed at developing “super-intelligence,” an AI technology expected to outperform humans across various tasks. As part of this strategy, the company acquired a significant stake in Scale AI, a startup valued at $29 billion, founded by 28-year-old Alexandr Wang, who joined Meta as part of the agreement.
Venture capitalist Deedy Das tweeted last week, commenting, “The AI talent wars are absolutely ridiculous.” Das, who is a principal at Menlo Ventures, noted that Meta has been losing AI talent to competitors, even while offering salaries of $2 million per year.
In a further sign of the intense competition, a report surfaced last month revealing that Anthropic, an AI firm backed by Amazon and Google, was actively recruiting top engineers from both OpenAI and DeepMind.
The race for premier AI developers coincides with rapid technological advancements and the ambition to create artificial general intelligence. The Carlyle Group recently estimated that the industry could expend $1.8 trillion on computing power by 2030, surpassing Australia’s annual gross domestic product.
Some technology companies are opting to acquire entire firms to secure elite talent. Meta’s acquisition of Scale AI and Google’s $2.7 billion purchase of Character.AI—a company founded by prominent AI researcher Noam Shazeer—illustrate this trend. Shazeer co-authored the influential 2017 paper, “Attention is All You Need,” which has played a critical role in the evolution of large language models.
Despite their differing origins—Meta started as a social media platform while OpenAI transitioned from a non-profit to a for-profit entity last year—the two firms now vie against each other in the AI space. Altman expressed skepticism about Meta’s ability to innovate successfully, stating, “I don’t think they’re a company that’s great at innovation.”
He recounted that Zuckerberg once remarked on Google’s attempt to integrate social media features shortly after Facebook’s launch, noting that it was apparent to Facebook employees at the time that such endeavors were destined for failure. “I feel a little bit similar here,” Altman remarked.
Amid the vast investments flowing into the AI sector, Altman warned that the development of true superintelligence may not significantly enhance the world or alter daily life, saying, “The fact that you can have this thing do this amazing stuff for you, and you kind of live your life the same way you did two years ago.”
He remains optimistic, however, forecasting that AI could lead to groundbreaking discoveries in science over the next five to ten years, which, if realized, would outshine every other achievement in the field. “This is a crazy claim to make, but I think it is true, and if it is correct, then over time I think that will dwarf everything else [AI has achieved],” he concluded.