Wed, 18 Jun 2025

Wed, 18 Jun 2025 OpenAI boss: Meta offering $100m plus to poach my staff

Sam Altman said so far none of his "best people" had jumped ship to his big tech rival.

* Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, has been making "giant offers" to OpenAI employees, including $100m signing bonuses.
* Sam Altman, OpenAI's CEO, says none of his top people have been persuaded to leave so far, but admits that Meta is offering more in compensation per year than the bonus amount.
* The reason OpenAI employees are staying is due to the company's "really special culture" and its mission to create superintelligence, Altman claims.
* Meta is attempting to boost its AI side of business, having recently spent $14bn on a 49% stake in startup Scale AI.
* Industry experts say that talent acquisition in AI is a high-risk, high-reward gamble, with a handful of elite researchers and engineers providing a decisive competitive advantage.
* Investment in AI is running at extraordinary levels, with OpenAI announcing a joint deal to spend $500bn on data centers for AI development.
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