Sam Altman Says Meta Offering $100 M to Poach OpenAI Talent Amid Intensifying AI Rivalry

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has alleged that Meta Platforms Inc. offered signing incentives of up to $100 million to lure top talent from OpenAI, a move he called “crazy” and reflective of intensifying rivalry within the AI industry.

On a podcast with his brother Jack Altman, he said, “They’ve started making these giant offers to a lot of people on our team. I’m really happy that, at least so far, none of our best people have decided to take him up on that.”

Altman credited OpenAI’s robust culture and mission‑driven focus for retaining his team, stating that employees believe OpenAI has a stronger chance of achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI), thereby increasing its value. He criticised Meta’s compensation‑first strategy, arguing that it fails to foster a strong culture or support long‑term innovation.

Meta’s Poaching Attempts

Meta is aggressively pursuing top AI talent, attempting to poach OpenAI’s Noam Brown and Google DeepMind’s Koray Kavukcuoglu, though both efforts were unsuccessful.

Despite these setbacks, Meta has successfully recruited researchers like Jack Rae from Google DeepMind and Johan Schalkwyk from Sesame AI to bolster its new “superintelligence” team, led by former Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang.

However, Altman remains sceptical of Meta’s strategy, stating, “Meta’s current AI efforts have not worked as well as they hoped.” He emphasised that “it’s not enough to catch up, you have to actually innovate.”

He attributes OpenAI’s ability to retain talent, despite Meta’s offers of up to $100 million in signing bonuses, to its strong culture and mission‑driven focus on achieving AGI. This highlights intense competition and differing approaches in the AI industry, with Meta betting on high‑profile hires and investments to close the gap with leaders like OpenAI and Google DeepMind.

Meta’s AI Vision

Meta’s substantial $14.3 billion investment for a 49 % stake in Scale AI underscores its commitment to competing in the AGI race, with Wang working closely with CEO Mark Zuckerberg to drive these efforts.

This move signals a strategic pivot for Meta, which has traditionally emphasised in‑house AI research and open‑source development of its Llama models. Partnering with Scale AI would enhance Meta’s AI infrastructure and capabilities, helping it compete with rivals such as Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet, who have collectively poured billions into AI start‑ups such as OpenAI and Anthropic.