Meta Offers Eye Watering $100M Dollar Bonuses to Poach OpenAI Staff Claims Altman

OpenAI’s chief executive Sam Altman has alleged that Meta Platforms is attempting to lure his organisation’s top artificial intelligence engineers with staggering signing bonuses reaching £100 million, marking a significant escalation in the technology sector’s talent war.

Speaking on the Uncapped podcast hosted by his brother, Altman revealed that Meta has begun making “giant offers” to OpenAI employees, with compensation packages potentially exceeding £100 million per annum. Despite these substantial enticements, Altman maintained that none of the company’s premier talent has accepted these offers.

Meta Platforms, valued at £1.8 trillion and formerly known as Facebook, has seen its position in the AI race become increasingly precarious. The company’s recent Llama 4 language models, launched in April, failed to meet industry expectations, whilst the anticipated release of their flagship AI model ‘Behemoth’ has faced delays.

The aggressive recruitment strategy emerges as Meta recently invested £14.3 billion in Scale AI, simultaneously appointing its chief executive, Alexandr Wang, to spearhead their new superintelligence division. These moves signal Meta’s determination to regain ground in the competitive AI landscape.

The revelations come amid broader industry tensions, with OpenAI recently abandoning plans to transition to a for-profit model following opposition from former employees and critics, including Elon Musk. The Tesla founder has initiated legal proceedings to prevent OpenAI’s structural changes, with a jury trial scheduled for March 2026.

Meta’s apparent targeting of OpenAI talent underscores the intensifying competition for AI expertise, as major technology companies vie for dominance in this rapidly evolving sector. The unprecedented scale of the reported compensation packages highlights the strategic importance these organisations place on securing top AI talent.