As Mark Zuckerberg builds out Meta’s new superintelligence lab, he’s making aggressive moves to attract elite AI researchers—offering compensation packages as high as $300 million over four years, with over $100 million in the first year alone, WIRED has learned.
According to sources familiar with the matter, Meta has extended at least 10 extraordinarily lucrative offers to staff at OpenAI. One senior researcher was reportedly offered the position of chief scientist but declined the role, several sources with direct knowledge confirmed. While the offers include equity, insiders say Meta is front-loading compensation by having the stock vest immediately in the first year.
“That’s roughly what it would take to get me to jump to Meta,” said one OpenAI staffer, speaking anonymously due to confidentiality agreements. Others noted they were torn between the massive compensation and the perceived difference in impact between working at Meta versus staying at OpenAI. Several believed their work at OpenAI carried more significance.
Meta’s communications chief Andy Stone pushed back hard on the numbers. “These claims are false—there’s been a lot of misrepresentation around the size and structure of these offers,” he said. “Some individuals have clearly chosen to exaggerate for their own agendas.”
Still, a senior engineer told WIRED they’re earning about $850,000 annually at Meta—impressive, though modest compared to the rumored packages now being offered. For reference, engineers at Meta’s E7 level reportedly make an average of $1.54 million per year, per salary data on Levels.FYI.
During an internal Q&A last week, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth addressed the headlines directly: “Look, the market’s hot. But it’s not that hot. Let’s be real. It’s just not true,” he said. He clarified that the $100 million figures apply only to a very limited number of high-level leadership roles. “Those folks command a premium,” he said, noting that OpenAI has been actively countering Meta’s offers.
To put those offers into perspective, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella earned $79.1 million in total compensation in 2024, mostly in stock, according to the company’s filings. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi made about $39.4 million that same year—again, primarily through equity.
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