Image: Jack Altman via X
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has accused Meta of attempting to poach his top artificial intelligence researchers with massive signing bonuses — some reportedly as high as $100 million. Altman made the accusation on an episode of the podcast Uncapped With Jack Altman, who is his brother.
“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,” Altman said on the podcast episode released Tuesday. “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.”
Altman didn’t hold back in his criticism of Meta. “I think the strategy of a ton 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.”
He went further, suggesting Meta is simply trying to replicate OpenAI’s playbook: “I think that there’s a lot of people, and Meta will be a new one, that are saying ‘we’re just going to try to copy OpenAI,’” he said. “That basically never works. You’re always going to where your competitor was, and you don’t build up a culture of learning what it’s like to innovate.”
Meta’s laser focus on superintelligence and Scale AI
Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, Thread, and WhatsApp, has sharpened its focus on artificial intelligence and is investing heavily in “superintelligence” — AI systems capable of outperforming humans in nearly all tasks. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has taken a hands-on role in building out the company’s new AI division, even conducting interviews personally.
Last week, Meta made a major move by investing $14.3 billion for a 49% stake in Scale AI, a data-labeling startup. As part of that deal, Scale AI’s founder, Alexandr Wang, joined Meta, along with a small team from his company. Wang is expected to lead research on superintelligence at Meta.
AI talent wars are in full swing
Altman’s comments come as competition for elite AI researchers reaches a boiling point. An X post last week from Deedy Das, a venture capitalist at Menlo Ventures, summed it up: “The AI talent wars are absolutely ridiculous,” noting that even $2 million-a-year offers are sometimes not enough to secure top hires.
And Meta isn’t alone. Other tech giants, including Anthropic and Google, have also been engaged in aggressive recruitment strategies, occasionally acquiring entire companies to bring talent in-house. Google spent $2.7 billion on Character.AI last year, and OpenAI acquired Jony Ive’s startup, io, in a $6.4 billion all-equity deal last month.
Altman’s ‘crazy claim’ about AI
Despite the eye-popping salaries and soaring ambitions, Altman warned that the industry must focus on meaningful progress.
“The thing that I think will be the most impactful in that five to 10-year timeframe is that AI will actually discover new science. This is a crazy claim to make, but I think it is true,” he said on the podcast.
Read our coverage about Altman’s superintelligence predictions, which include “whole classes of jobs” will disappear.
