Meta’s $100M Bonuses Target OpenAI Talent — Altman Reveals AI Rivalry
In a striking revelation, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has disclosed that Meta, the tech giant behind Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, is aggressively pursuing his top engineers with staggering signing bonuses reportedly reaching $100 million.
Speaking on his brother Jack Altman’s podcast, Sam highlighted Meta’s bold push to expand its artificial intelligence capabilities, exemplified by its recent $14 billion acquisition of a 49% stake in AI startup Scale AI.
Despite these lucrative offers, Altman emphasized that none of OpenAI’s “best people” have yet been swayed. He credits their loyalty to OpenAI’s compelling mission to develop superintelligence, alongside the “economic rewards and everything else flowing from that.” This insight echoes broader industry reporting from outlets like Bloomberg and The Verge, which have chronicled the intense talent wars reshaping AI development.
Meta’s ambitions to rival OpenAI in achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI)—the threshold where AI matches or surpasses human cognitive abilities—are well documented.
Superintelligence, the next evolutionary step, aims to create AI systems vastly outperforming human intellect.
Altman acknowledged Meta’s strategy as “rational,” but contrasted their approach with OpenAI’s “special culture” centered on innovation. “There’s many things I respect about Meta, but I don’t think they’re great at innovation,” he remarked, drawing a parallel to Google’s failed attempt to rival Facebook’s social media dominance.
This disclosure adds fuel to the narrative of a high-stakes battle among Silicon Valley’s titans for AI supremacy, characterized by unprecedented financial investments and aggressive talent acquisition.
Earlier this year, OpenAI announced a staggering $500 billion plan to expand AI data centers across the United States, underscoring the immense scale of this competition.
Altman’s candid remarks reflect a growing trend of tech leaders using podcasts as platforms for unfiltered commentary on rivals.
Similarly, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently praised Apple’s iPhone on Joe Rogan’s show but criticized Apple’s recent slowdown in innovation—a rare moment of frankness from the usually guarded executive.
Meanwhile, Silicon Valley remains a hotbed of public rivalries. Zuckerberg and Elon Musk have traded barbs and even threatened a cage fight, while Musk is currently embroiled in legal battles with Altman over OpenAI’s origins.
Altman’s revelations underscore how culture, vision, and massive financial incentives are converging in a fierce contest to define the future of artificial intelligence—a contest that promises to reshape technology and society on a global scale.
