The Blubber

In the ongoing battle to secure top AI talent, Meta has reportedly scored a notable win, recruiting three researchers from OpenAI, even as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has publicly mocked Mark Zuckerberg’s aggressive hiring tactics.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov, and Xiaohua Zhai — the trio who helped launch OpenAI’s Zurich office — have now joined Meta’s superintelligence team, signaling that Zuckerberg’s high-stakes strategy may be paying off.

In a recent podcast with his brother Jack, Altman revealed that Zuckerberg has been offering compensation packages exceeding $100 million to entice top AI talent away from OpenAI. The WSJ further reported that Zuckerberg has personally reached out to hundreds of leading AI researchers via WhatsApp, organizing outreach through a group chat called “Recruiting Party 🎉” and hosting private dinners at his homes in Palo Alto and Lake Tahoe.

The results of this campaign have been mixed. One big win: Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang, who joined Meta following a $14 billion investment deal, making him one of the most expensive hires in tech history. However, Zuckerberg has yet to land some of his highest-profile targets, including OpenAI co-founders Ilya Sutskever and John Schulman, both of whom have gone on to launch their own startups.

On the podcast, Altman commented on Zuckerberg’s recruitment push:

“I’m really happy that, at least so far, none of our best people have decided to take him up on [those offers].”