Meta reportedly offered bonuses worth $100 million to OpenAI employees in an unsuccessful attempt to lure talent away from the creator of ChatGPT and bolster its own generative AI teams, according to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
The parent company of Facebook, which competes directly with OpenAI, also proposed “giant” annual salaries exceeding $100 million to some staff members, Altman revealed during an interview on the “Uncapped with Jack Altman” podcast released on Tuesday.
“It is crazy,” Altman told his brother Jack during the conversation. “I’m really happy that, at least so far, none of our best people have decided to take them up on that.”
The OpenAI co-founder added that Meta had extended such offers to numerous members of his team.
Meta did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The social media giant has invested billions into artificial intelligence technology as it competes fiercely with OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft in the AI space.
Earlier this year, Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced plans to invest at least $60 billion in AI throughout 2025, aiming to lead advancements in the technology.
Recently, Meta struck a deal reportedly worth more than $10 billion with Scale AI, a company specialising in labelling data used to train AI models. As part of this agreement, Scale AI’s founder and CEO, Alexandr Wang, will join Meta to aid in the company’s AI and superintelligence projects.
Comparing his company to Meta’s efforts, Altman stated on the podcast that “OpenAI has a much better shot at delivering on superintelligence.”
He criticised Meta’s approach, saying, “I think the strategy of a ton of upfront guaranteed compensation as the reason to join… I don’t think that’s going to build a great culture.”
According to US media reports, Meta has also offered nine-figure annual salaries to executives at Scale AI.
“There are many things I respect about Meta as a company,” Altman said, “but I don’t think they are a company that’s great at innovation.”
