Sam Altman describes offer from Mark Zuckerberg’s company as ‘crazy’, as scramble for talent intensifies
The boss of OpenAI has claimed that Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta has tried to poach his top artificial intelligence experts with “crazy” signing bonuses of $100m (£74m), as the scramble for talent in the booming sector intensifies.
Sam Altman spoke about the offers in a podcast on Tuesday. They have not been confirmed by Meta. OpenAI, the company that developed ChatGPT, said it had nothing to add beyond its chief executive’s comments.
“They started making these giant offers to a lot of people on our team – $100m signing bonuses, more than that comp [compensation] per year,” Altman told the Uncapped podcast, which is presented by his brother, Joel. “It is crazy. I’m really happy that, at least so far, none of our best people have decided to take them up on that.”
He said: “I think the strategy of a tonne of upfront, guaranteed comp, and that being the reason you tell someone to join … the degree to which they’re focusing on that, and not the work and not the mission – I don’t think that’s going to set up a great culture.”
