Meta has intensified its recruitment efforts, as it aggressively recruits Artificial Intelligence (AI) talent from top AI firms.
The tech giant has reportedly compiled a list of top-tier talent it plans to hire, offering a $100 million pay package and other lavish perks. Dubbed “The List”, the rumored index includes hotshot engineers and scientists who have worked at rivals OpenAI and Google DeepMind, and possess doctorates degrees from top universities.
Recall that Meta had successfully poached eight senior researchers from OpenAI, escalating competition for top AI talent in Silicon Valley. The hires, reported by various outlets including TechCrunch and The Wall Street Journal, include influential researchers like Trapit Bansal, Shengjia Zhao, Jiahui Yu, Shuchao Bi, and Hongyu Ren. This follows the April 2025 launch of Meta’s Llama 4 AI models, which reportedly underperformed, prompting CEO Mark Zuckerberg to personally reach out to potential recruits.
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With Meta recruiting a number of OpenAI senior researchers, executives at the company reportedly reassured team members that the company leadership has not been sitting idle. OpenAI’s leadership, including Chief Research Officer Mark Chen and CEO Sam Altman, has been working tirelessly to retain staff amid the fierce AI talent race. In a Slack memo obtained by Wired, OpenAI Chief Research Officer Mark Chen expressed his reaction to the departures, likening them to a home invasion.
“I feel a visceral feeling right now, as if someone has broken into our home and stolen something,” Chen wrote. “Please trust that we haven’t been sitting idly by.”
Even as OpenAI leadership appears desperate to retain its staff, Chen said that he has “high personal standards of fairness” and wants to retain top talent with that in mind. “While I’ll fight to keep every one of you, I won’t do so at the price of fairness to others,” he wrote.
He assured team members that OpenAI is recalibrating compensation and exploring creative ways to reward talent while maintaining fairness. Amidst Meta’s aggressive hiring spree, CEO Altman complained that Meta offered “$100 million signing bonuses,” a figure that Meta executives have pushed back internally.
Meta’s aggressive AI hiring spree continues, with The Wall Street Journal reporting that the tech giant has compiled a shortlist of top-tier talent it plans to court with $100 million pay packages and other lavish perks. Dubbed “The List,” the rumored index includes “hotshot engineers and scientists” who have worked at rivals OpenAI and Google DeepMind, and possess doctorates from top universities. The intense hiring and poaching efforts reflect the extreme lengths Meta and its competitors are willing to go to secure top candidates.
During a company-wide all-hands meeting, some of Meta’s top executives were asked about the bonuses that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said Meta had offered to top researchers. Meta’s CTO Andrew Bosworth noted that only a few people for very senior leadership roles have been offered that kind of money, but clarified “the actual terms of the offer” wasn’t a “sign-on bonus. It’s all these different things.” In other words, not an instant chunk of cash.
Meta, under the leadership of CEO Mark Zuckerberg, has embarked on a significant hiring spree aimed at building a new “superintelligence” team. This initiative is part of a broader strategy to enhance its capabilities in artificial intelligence (AI) and compete more effectively with industry leaders.
It is understood that Meta recently made a $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI, a data-labeling firm crucial for training machine learning models. This investment is part of Meta’s strategy to bolster its AI research capabilities and enhance its competitive edge.
As part of this hiring spree, Meta has appointed Alexandr Wang, the founder of Scale AI, to lead its new AI team. This move is seen as a critical step in assembling a top-tier group of AI researchers to drive innovation within the company.
OpenAI is expanding its services to include customized AI models, but only for customers willing to pay at least $10 million, The Information reports, citing anonymous sources. The shift towards AI customization comes as software and consulting firm competitors, like Palantir and Accenture, beef up their own AI capabilities and budgets to woo enterprise clients and drive sales. The AI giant recently secured a $200 million contract to build a custom model for the U.S. Defense Department.
The aggressive hiring reflects Meta’s ramped-up focus on AI research, targeting talent from OpenAI and Google. Meanwhile, OpenAI’s leadership is striving to retain its top researchers amid this high-stakes talent war, with its leadership emphasizing fairness in its retention efforts.
Notably, Meta’s hiring spree highlights the intense competition in the AI sector, with significant financial resources being allocated to attract top talent. As the company seeks to establish itself as a leader in AI, the outcomes of these efforts will be closely watched by industry observers and competitors alike.