Mark Zuckerberg-led Meta’s Superintelligence team hired at least four top researchers from OpenAI recently, allegedly with a $100 million signing bonus. Sam Altman even griped about the situation in his recent podcast interview with his brother, Jack Altman. With the AI talent war intensifying, companies are now ramping up efforts to retain their best.
In a Slack memo as seen by Wired Chief Research Officer Mark Chen, he wrote, “I feel a visceral feeling right now, as if someone has broken into our home and stolen something.”
The memo further stated that the Sam Altman company is now “more proactive than ever before.” Mark wrote, “we’re recalibrating comp, and we’re scoping out creative ways to recognize and reward top talent.”
The memo reassured that, along with CEO Sam Altman, top leaders at OpenAI are working “around the clock to talk to those with offers.” Chen further remarked in the memo, “While I’ll fight to keep every one of you, I won’t do so at the price of fairness to others.”
Per Wired, some staff at OpenAI grind 80-hours a week. The company will be largely shut down this week to give employees time to recharge. Chen’s memo quipped, stating another leader’s remark,
Meta knows we’re taking this week to recharge and will take advantage of it to try and pressure you to make decisions fast and in isolation. If you’re feeling that pressure, don’t be afraid to reach out. I and Mark are around and want to support you!”
OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman has accused Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta of trying to poach his developers with the promise of $100mn sign-on bonuses and even higher pay packages https://t.co/xTKd5R8wZc pic.twitter.com/MvMqGe3eyr
— Financial Times (@FT) June 18, 2025
Meta exec calls OpenAI’s Sam Altman ‘dishonest’ over claims of ‘$100M signing bonuses’ to poach AI talent https://t.co/Tw95RsZImN pic.twitter.com/ZhFYRVcqwj
— NY Post Business (@nypostbiz) June 27, 2025
Meta has now hired seven people from OpenAI.
Given that they made a $32B offer for Ilya, they can buy 320 people from OpenAI at $100M a pop.
If OpenAI loses them all, there won’t be an OpenAI. 😲
— Bindu Reddy (@bindureddy) June 28, 2025
As Mark Zuckerberg lures away top research talent to Meta, OpenAI executives say they’re ‘recalibrating comp,’ according to an internal memo. https://t.co/otnhsHRkYv
— WIRED (@WIRED) June 29, 2025
the real redpill is that zuck isn’t paying ML researchers in only money – money is worthless. He’s paying them in the ability to not work 80 hour work weeks— kache (@yacineMTB) June 30, 2025
See Also: Sam Altman Says Meta Tried To Hire OpenAI’s Best Engineers For Superintelligence Team With $100 Million Signing Bonus
See Also: Mark Zuckerberg Spends Top Dollar Poaching Three AI Talents From Sam Altman’s Team At Zurich