OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says Meta is trying to lure his team members with substantial offers, including $100 million signing bonuses. The push comes as Meta invests heavily in artificial intelligence, recently spending $14 billion to acquire a major stake in the Scale AI startup. Despite the offers, Altman claims his top staffers have so far remained with OpenAI, motivated by the company's mission to develop superintelligence and the long-term rewards tied to that goal, per the BBC.
"None of our best people have decided to take [them] up on that," he said of Meta's poaching attempts on his brother Jack's Uncapped podcast, per CNN. Altman acknowledged Meta's aggressive recruiting strategy and noted the competition extends to annual compensation packages, though he didn't specify details. He suggested OpenAI's culture and focus on innovation are strong draws for engineers, contrasting this with his view of Meta's track record on innovation, which he doesn't think is "great."
Major tech firms are pouring resources into advancing artificial general intelligence, with OpenAI itself announcing a $500 billion plan for new US data centers earlier this year. Altman expressed confidence that OpenAI is better positioned to deliver on the promise of superintelligence than Meta and could ultimately become "the more valuable company." He also likened Meta's pursuit of superintelligence to Google's unsuccessful attempt to challenge Facebook in social media, though he conceded that Meta's strategy is "rational." (This content was created with the help of AI. Read our AI policy.)