OpenAI’s boss has accused Meta of trying to poach his his best employees with $100 million (€87 million) in signing bonuses.
Sam Altman told his brother Jack on his podcast that Meta was offering more than that in “compensation per year,” but didn’t elaborate on any of the benefits or stock options being offered.
Meta, the owner of the social and messaging apps Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, just made a $14 billion (€12.18 billion) investment to buy a 49 per cent stake in Scale AI, an artificial intelligence startup, as a way of bolstering the AI side of its business.
Scale AI had a preexisting business relationship with OpenAI, where it fine-tuned their more advanced ChatGPT models.
Global leaders say winning the AI race is critical to national security and for advancements in health, business, and technology.
Meanwhile, companies such as OpenAI, Google and DeepSeek, among many others, are battling it out to build the best AI platforms.
Altman said that while he respects Meta’s “aggression” in competing with OpenAI, but that so far, none of his top talent has left him yet.
“I think Meta thinks of us as their biggest competitor and, you know, I think it's rational for them to keep trying [with AI],” Altman said.
“I think the strategy of a ton of upfront guaranteed comp(ensation) and that being the reason you tell someone to join … I don't think that’s going to set up a great culture”.
Altman added that he respects much about Meta but doesn’t think it is “great at innovation”.
Instead, Altman thinks staff are staying at OpenAI because of a “really special culture” at his company and their mission to create artificial superintelligence, where AI will be smarter than humans.
“I think people look at the two paths [OpenAI vs Meta] and they say OpenAI’s got a really good shot, a much better shot on actually delivering on super intelligence and may eventually be the more valuable company,” he said.
