Altman Says Meta Targeting OpenAI Staff With $100 Million Bonuses as AI Race Intensifies 23
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman accused Meta of attempting to poach his developers with $100 million sign-on bonuses and higher compensation packages as the social media giant races to catch up in AI race. Altman said Meta, which has a $1.8 trillion market capitalization, began making the offers to his team members after falling behind in AI efforts. "I've heard that Meta thinks of us as their biggest competitor," Altman said on the Uncapped podcast [video] hosted by his brother.
None of his "best people" had accepted Zuckerberg's offers, he said. Meta has been recruiting top researchers and engineers from rival companies to build a new "superintelligence" team focused on developing AGI. The Facebook parent company has struggled this year to match competitors, facing criticism over its Llama 4 language model and delaying its flagship "Behemoth" AI model.
None of his "best people" had accepted Zuckerberg's offers, he said. Meta has been recruiting top researchers and engineers from rival companies to build a new "superintelligence" team focused on developing AGI. The Facebook parent company has struggled this year to match competitors, facing criticism over its Llama 4 language model and delaying its flagship "Behemoth" AI model.
Moneygrubbing Sam being out-moneygrubbed (Score:3)
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The violin is NOT tiny! (Score:3)
Also, it is not the rat that's playing it!
AI can't even get that one right.
Is this yet another one of OpenAI's creations?
Re:The violin is NOT tiny! (Score:4, Funny)
That's enough slashvertisements for one day /s (Score:2)
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You must be new...
Fee market for labour (Score:1)
Employees are free to offer their services to the highest bidder.
Employers are free to offer employees as much as they like.
Fuck Altman and anyone else who wants to restrict the ability of people to freely move within the labour market.
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Altman's not doing that though. He's playing his rubes. Altman is going full Trump, triggering outrage.
No one is declining a 100M signing bonus unless they have a similar compensation package already, and no one is offering signing bonuses like that unless they are required to recruit. Is that the case here? The purpose of this claim is not to reveal truth, it's to enrage stupid people. Sam Altman is a billionaire playing the victim, just like he is when he threatens Microsoft with antitrust immediatel
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I'm curious if these compensation packages are mostly stock and/or options?
any idea on that?
If the rewards are mostly in the future that incentivizes people to not jump ship, and costs very little in the present.
Too much cash, too little to show. (Score:3)
Throwing nine figures at individuals because you can’t compete on output isn’t strategy, it’s panic.
If Meta needs $100M per hire to stay in the game, maybe it’s not the right game.
Or maybe it’s time to return some capital to shareholders.
Retirement (Score:3)
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That is find with Meta. They are not after building the best, they are after having the best offering. They already have the minimum saleable product. As far as Zuck is concerned staying a head of the competition is all the matters. That can be achieved by development in house, acquisition, or simply kneecapping the competitors; or any combination of the three. The precise mix is not important to him.
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Incorrect, the employment contract specifies that your brain is donated to your employer should you leave.
Re:Retirement (Score:4, Insightful)
The $100M bonus, if not an exaggeration, is probably restricted stock/options which will require you to be there four years to get all the money.
The $100M number seems too high to be realistic to me. For reference, Tim Cook's total compensation last year was $60M. Since his compensation is probably heavily tilted toward equity, we can assume that what he was actually paid in grants (the value of the stock/options when they were given, but not yet vested) was probably more like $15-30M. If Altman had said $1M, I would have easily believed him. Had he said, $10M I would've had doubts. But he said $100M and that's clearly absurd.
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The $100M bonus, if not an exaggeration, is probably restricted stock/options which will require you to be there four years to get all the money.
The $100M number seems too high to be realistic to me. For reference, Tim Cook's total compensation last year was $60M. Since his compensation is probably heavily tilted toward equity, we can assume that what he was actually paid in grants (the value of the stock/options when they were given, but not yet vested) was probably more like $15-30M. If Altman had said $1M, I would have easily believed him. Had he said, $10M I would've had doubts. But he said $100M and that's clearly absurd.
I wonder if it's the case that the people being targeted having $100m+ in OpenAI stock options, and those options go away if they jump ship to Meta. That would explain why they might be sticking with OpenAI because they believe it can succeed.
Meta pulled in $160B last year, so a couple billion trying to buy the industry's top AI team isn't a terrible idea, though I'm not sure it will succeed. I think OpenAI has the lead, but the quality of LLMs are starting to converge and OpenAI's lead at this point is mos
\o/ (Score:1)
In reality he competes with every business and freelancer in the world - is there a possible future where the people of the world can continue to feed their families AND OpenAI etc continue to satisfy the demands of their shareholders? Time will tell.
Sounds like deep delusion (Score:2)
Or direct lying. The whole AI mess is, if anything, slowing down as the actual very limited usefullness becomes slowly more obvious.