Sam Altman Says Meta is Offering OpenAI Staff $100 million to Poach AI Talent

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has revealed that Meta, under the leadership of Mark Zuckerberg, is offering signing bonuses as high as $100 million in a bold attempt to attract top artificial intelligence talent from OpenAI.

Altman made the disclosure on an episode of Uncapped, a podcast hosted by his brother, where he described Meta’s compensation offers as “crazy.” He confirmed that the company has made overtures to several OpenAI staff. “They’ve tried to hire a lot of people at OpenAI. So far, none of our best people have decided to take them up on that,” Altman said.

The comments underscore the intensifying talent war in Silicon Valley as tech giants race to dominate the next wave of AI development. At the centre of Meta’s effort is a newly formed “superintelligence” team that CEO Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly building himself, personally reaching out to industry-leading researchers in a direct, high-stakes recruitment drive.

As part of this push, Meta has made a landmark $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI, a data-labeling firm critical to training large language models. The deal gives Meta a 49% stake in Scale, valuing the startup at $29 billion and bringing in its 28-year-old founder and CEO, Alexandr Wang, to lead Meta’s new AI strategy.

Sources close to the deal told Reuters that Meta’s real aim wasn’t just the investment—it was securing Wang as a top AI executive. Wang, a celebrated Silicon Valley figure who dropped out of MIT to co-found Scale, is widely seen as one of the industry’s most influential young leaders.

Meta has also been aggressively courting talent from other leading AI labs. Bloomberg recently reported the company succeeded in recruiting Jack Rae, a principal researcher from Google DeepMind.

Despite Meta’s spending spree, Altman believes OpenAI’s core team remains loyal and mission-driven. “I respect being aggressive and continuing to try new things,” he said. “But I don’t think they’re a company that’s great at innovation.”

Sam Altman emphasized that OpenAI’s culture, not just cash, is what helps retain talent. “I think we understand a lot of things they don’t,” Altman added, suggesting that meaningful work and long-term vision may outweigh lucrative offers in the battle for the best minds in AI.

Meta, which was once a leader in open-source AI development, has in recent months struggled with internal transitions, including staff exits and delayed releases of its new open-source models. These models are intended to rival offerings from Google, OpenAI, and fast-emerging players like China’s DeepSeek.

As of the time of this report, Meta has not issued a public response to Altman’s claims.

The story paints a vivid picture of how the AI arms race is not just about models or infrastructure but people. And as leading AI labs position themselves for dominance, the global implications of these talent moves are being closely watched across tech ecosystems, including in Africa, where AI ambitions are steadily rising.