OpenAI’s big cheese, Sam Altman, spilled the beans on Meta’s wild attempt to swipe his top AI wizards with a jaw-dropping $100 million signing bonus. Speaking on his brother Joel’s Uncapped podcast, Altman chuckled about the “crazy” cash offers that failed to lure his team.
Meta, staying mum, hasn’t confirmed the cash splash, leaving the tech world buzzing with giggles and gasps.
Altman painted a picture of Meta tossing money around with the enthusiasm of a kid in a candy store. “They started making these giant offers to a lot of people on our team—$100 million signing bonuses, more comp per year,” he said, barely hiding his amusement. Yet, OpenAI’s brainiacs, apparently unmoved by the dollar dazzle, stuck with their mission to build ChatGPT’s smarter cousins.
The AI talent tug-of-war has turned Silicon Valley into a battlefield. Venture capitalist Deedy Das tweeted that Meta’s $2 million-a-year salaries couldn’t keep AI candidates from jumping ship to rivals Anthropic and OpenAI. It’s a scene straight out of a game show where contestants dodge cash piles for a shot at tech glory.
Meta, not one to sulk, went big last week with a $15 billion bet on “super-intelligence” AI that aims to outsmart humans at, well, everything. They snagged a chunk of Scale AI, a $29 billion startup, and its 28-year-old founder Alexandr Wang, who’s now leading Meta’s charge into the AI frontier. It’s a bold move, but Altman’s smirk suggests he’s not sweating it.
The race for artificial general intelligence (AGI)—think computers that could ace a human’s to-do list—has tech giants throwing cash like confetti. Bloomberg reports that by 2030, companies might spend $1.8 trillion on computing power, more than Australia’s GDP. That’s enough to make anyone’s calculator wheeze.
Some firms are skipping the hiring hassle and just buying entire companies to secure talent. Meta’s Scale AI deal and Google’s $2.7 billion splurge on Character.AI, founded by AI rockstar Noam Shazeer, show the stakes are sky-high. Shazeer’s 2017 paper, Attention is All You Need, is basically the Bible for today’s AI models.
Altman, however, isn’t buying Meta’s strategy. He quipped on the podcast that Meta’s focus on fat paychecks won’t spark the innovation needed to win the AI race. “I don’t think that’s going to set up a great culture,” he said, sounding like a coach preaching teamwork over trophies.
OpenAI, once a humble nonprofit, now a for-profit player, stands toe-to-toe with Meta, a social media giant turned AI hopeful. Altman took a playful jab, recalling how Google’s social media dreams flopped against Facebook’s early hustle. “I feel a little bit similar here,” he said, implying Meta’s AI ambitions might fizzle.
Despite the billions flying around, Altman dropped a surprising hot take: super-smart AI might not change the world as much as we think. “You kind of live your life the same way you did two years ago,” he mused, suggesting our daily grind might stay stubbornly human. But he’s betting big on AI cracking new science, a claim bold enough to raise eyebrows and coffee cups.
Anthropic, backed by Amazon and Google, is also stealing the show, reportedly poaching talent from OpenAI and DeepMind. A recent report noted their knack for snagging top minds, proving that in this talent war, loyalty is as slippery as a Wi-Fi signal. The 2025 SignalFire State of Talent Report pegs Anthropic’s retention rate at 80%, with OpenAI and Meta trailing at 67% and 64%.
This AI frenzy isn’t just about code; it’s about culture. Altman insists OpenAI’s mission-driven vibe keeps his team grounded, while Meta’s cash cannon risks building a squad more mercenary than visionary. It’s a comedy of errors where money talks, but purpose might just walk.
As the dust settles, Silicon Valley’s AI soap opera keeps delivering laughs and lessons. Will Meta’s billions buy them a ticket to the AGI big leagues, or will OpenAI’s heart-and-soul approach steal the show?
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