OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has publicly accused Meta of trying to lure his employees with massive compensation packages, including signing bonuses worth up to $100 million. While fierce competition for top AI talent is nothing new in Silicon Valley, what’s unusual this time is how openly Altman is talking about it – something that is typically handled behind closed doors.
Speaking at the Uncapped Podcast, which is hosted by his brother Jack Altman, he said: “They [Meta] started making giant offers to a lot of people on our team. You know, like $100 million signing bonuses, more than that [in] compensation per year.”
He added that “at least, so far, none of our best people have decided to take them up on that.” Meta has not yet responded publicly to the claims.
What makes Altman’s comments especially striking isn’t the act of talent poaching itself – which is fairly common in the tech world, especially amid the intense race to achieve artificial general intelligence (AGI) – but the fact that he’s calling it out so openly. Usually, when engineers or executives move between companies, it is only noticed after the fact when LinkedIn announcements are made. This time, however, the head of OpenAI is not only lifting the curtain on the practice but also suggesting that Meta sees OpenAI as its biggest threat.
“I have heard that Meta thinks of us as their biggest competitor,” Altman remarked, in what could be read as both a warning and a subtle boast.
His comments come just days after Meta made a big movie of its own in the AI space, investing $14.3 billion in Scale AI, a data-labelling startup that is critical to AI model training. As part of the deal, Scale AI’s CEO Alexandr Wang joined Meta to head its new superintelligence division – an ambitious unit tasked with developing the next generation of general-purpose AI systems.
The Facebook parent company, which was once seen as a front-runner in open-source AI, has recently been grappling with internal setbacks. Reports suggest that Meta has delayed launching key models and lost valuable staff while trying to keep pace with rivals such as OpenAI, Google, and China’s DeepSeek.
Now, here’s some food for thought: While Meta’s rumoured $100 million offers may seem amusing at first, what really stands out is Altman’s decision to shine a light on these behind-the-scenes moves. It could be strategic – signalling both confidence in OpenAI’s culture (by pointing out that the best people haven’t accepted the offers) and taking a subtle jab at Meta’s recruitment tactics by bringing them into the open.