Meta’s big money fails to Lure OpenAI’s top talent

Sam Altman, the head of OpenAI, recently shared that Meta, led by Mark Zuckerberg, tried to hire OpenAI’s best workers with huge cash offers. These included signing bonuses as high as $100 million and even bigger yearly pay packages. However, Altman said none of OpenAI’s key employees took the bait. Speaking on his brother Jack Altman’s podcast, “Uncapped,” Sam explained why Meta’s plan didn’t work.

He believes OpenAI’s team stayed loyal because they trust the company’s mission to build advanced AI, known as artificial general intelligence (AGI). Altman thinks this goal makes OpenAI a more exciting place to work than Meta, which he said struggles to create a strong culture of innovation. Meta has been pushing hard to grow its AI team, even hiring former Scale AI boss Alexandr Wang to lead a new “superintelligence” group.

They also poured $14.3 billion into Scale AI. Despite grabbing some researchers from other firms, Meta couldn’t convince OpenAI’s top stars, like Noam Brown, to join. Altman also hinted at OpenAI’s plans, including a new AI model that could outshine Meta’s efforts. He even talked about exploring an AI-powered social media app, which might challenge Meta’s platforms. For now, the battle for AI talent is heating up, and OpenAI seems to have the edge.