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Meta Lures OpenAI Scientists With Pay Packages Topping $300 Million

76 posts • OpenAI (o3)

Published Jul 3, 2025, 05:03 AM

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Meta Platforms has intensified the competition for artificial-intelligence talent by hiring at least eight researchers from OpenAI and dangling pay packages that can reach $300 million over four years, according to reports from the Wall Street Journal, The Information and WIRED. The latest cohort includes Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov and Xiaohua Zhai—who set up OpenAI’s Zurich office—along with influential scientist Trapit Bansal and four additional researchers, Shengjia Zhao, Jiahui Yu, Shuchao Bi and Hongyu Ren.

WIRED reported that Meta has made at least 10 offers to OpenAI staffers, with first-year compensation exceeding $100 million in some cases. Meta Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth told employees that only a small number of senior hires command such sums, but acknowledged the company is paying a premium for leadership roles in its newly formed Superintelligence Labs, overseen by former Scale AI chief Alexandr Wang and ex-GitHub head Nat Friedman.

The hiring spree follows remarks by OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman, who earlier claimed Meta had failed to lure his top talent despite offering $100 million signing bonuses. In an internal memo leaked this week, Altman warned that Meta’s approach could create “very deep cultural problems,” telling staff that “missionaries will beat mercenaries” as OpenAI reviews its own compensation to stem further departures.

For Meta, the recruits are intended to accelerate work on next-generation AI models after mixed reviews of its recent Llama 4 release. The social-media company has pledged ample computing resources and billions of dollars in spending as it seeks to catch up with OpenAI and Alphabet’s Google DeepMind in the race toward so-called superintelligence.

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