Meta courts OpenAI employees: 300 million US dollars offered for four years
For weeks there have been reports of Meta trying to poach key employees from OpenAI. Now there are more details about the surreal offers.
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In the battle for top talent for the development of AI technology, Meta has offered to pay USD 300 million over four years, including USD 100 million in the first year alone. This was reported by the US magazine Wired, adding to earlier reports about the huge sums on offer. The money is intended to persuade OpenAI employees to change employers, and a total of ten such particularly high salary offers have been made. While a Meta spokesperson publicly denied the sum mentioned, the company assured its employees that not everyone would be offered 100 million US dollars for the first year.
No poaching despite the huge sum
The Financial Times already reported in mid-June that Meta was attempting to lure OpenAI employees with a bonus of 100 million US dollars for the move. Now Wired adds how much money there will be for the work itself. According to the report, the immense sums also seem necessary, with one anonymous OpenAI employee quoted as saying: “That's about how much I'd have to be paid to work for Meta.” Others are also weighing up the offers and assume that their work at OpenAI could have a greater impact on the future of AI. So far, according to Wired, no one who has been offered the 300 million US dollars has decided to make the switch.
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But even outside the top positions, salaries in the AI industry have recently risen significantly, writes the Financial Times. While some key engineers are paid 10 million US dollars a year, salaries of between three and seven million are typical, the newspaper reports. Compared to 2022, this is an increase of 50 percent. In comparison, the reported offers from Meta are on an entirely different level. After all, 300 million US dollars over four years would be significantly more than many a CEO in Silicon Valley receives.
Even though Meta apparently did not succeed in convincing the most sought-after people to change employers despite the sums on offer, seven OpenAI employees have left for Meta, Wired writes. This has already caused criticism at OpenAI; on the weekend, the head of research at the AI company stated internally that it felt as if someone had “broken into our home and stolen something”, Wired also reported. Later, OpenAI boss Sam Altman also promised employees that their salary packages would be adjusted.
(mho)
