Meta Offered Massive Payouts to Woo OpenAI Staff—CEO Altman

Meta reportedly tried to lure top talent from OpenAI with massive financial incentives, including bonuses and salaries that exceeded $100 million, but the effort proved unsuccessful, according to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

Speaking on the Uncapped with Jack Altman podcast, Altman revealed that Meta — the parent company of Facebook — made offers to numerous OpenAI employees as part of a push to bolster its generative AI workforce.

“It is crazy,” Altman said in a conversation with his brother Jack. “I’m really happy that at least so far, none of our best people have taken them up on that.”

According to Altman, Meta’s recruitment strategy included “giant” annual salaries and upfront compensation packages meant to tempt OpenAI staffers away. Despite the aggressive approach, he indicated that loyalty among his top team remains strong.

Meta has yet to publicly comment on the claims. The social media conglomerate has been pouring billions into artificial intelligence in an attempt to keep pace with key competitors such as OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google. Earlier this year, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the company would invest at least $60 billion in AI development in 2025, with a long-term vision to lead advancements in the space.

In a major recent development, Meta entered into a deal reportedly worth more than $10 billion with Scale AI, a firm known for labeling data used in training AI models. As part of the arrangement, Scale AI founder and CEO Alexandr Wang joined Meta to support its AI and superintelligence efforts.

While acknowledging Meta’s scale, Altman remained critical of its innovation culture. “OpenAI has a much better shot at delivering on superintelligence,” he said. “I don’t think a strategy based purely on huge upfront compensation is going to foster the kind of culture that builds great things.”

He added, “There are many things I respect about Meta, but I don’t think innovation is their strong suit.”

Reports from U.S. media indicate that Meta’s nine-figure salary offers have also been extended to executives at Scale AI as part of its aggressive hiring strategy.