The Blubber

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta has offered OpenAI employees signing bonuses as high as $100 million in an effort to lure talent away, according to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

“They started making giant offers to a lot of people on our team,” Altman said during an appearance on the Uncapped podcast hosted by his brother, Jack Altman. “You know, like $100 million signing bonuses.”

Despite the massive offers, Altman said Meta hasn’t succeeded. “None of our best people have decided to take them up on that,” he noted.

Meta declined to comment on the report.

Altman also took a swipe at Meta’s AI strategy. “Their current AI efforts have not worked as well as they have hoped,” he said. “And I respect being aggressive and continuing to try new things... but I don’t think they’re a company that’s great at innovation. I think we understand a lot of things they don’t.”

The remarks come as Zuckerberg is said to be leading a major push to build AI systems capable of achieving “superintelligence”—a level of artificial intelligence that could exceed human capabilities. Reports from Bloomberg and The New York Times suggest Zuckerberg has taken a hands-on role, meeting with AI experts in his homes and rearranging Meta’s Menlo Park headquarters so the new AI team operates near his office.

Last week, Meta committed $14.3 billion to acquire a 49% stake in Scale AI, part of an effort to accelerate its AI ambitions. As part of the deal, Scale AI founder and CEO Alexandr Wang will join Meta, along with several members of his team.

Over the last few years, Zuckerberg has moved aggressively to transform Meta into a major AI player, with mixed results. His efforts have taken on new urgency as OpenAI—backed by tens of billions in funding—continues to dominate the space.