The AI talent war has been heating up among the big tech companies as they compete for an increasing number of elite AI researchers. According to Openai CEO Sam Altman, Meta has been actively following the company’s top engineers, offering coveted compensation and multi-million dollar signing bonuses.
Ultraman in one plot No cover The Dollar offers “huge offer” among many on our team, some of which total “$100 million in signing bonuses, and (in) compensation exceeds each year.”
This is the latest example of a fierce competition for top talent, companies willing to recruit and retain their length.
Currently, Meta is particularly committed to its AI recruitment drivers. The company has lost several top AI researchers in recent years and is currently battling narrative, falling behind in the AI race after its latest Llama 3 model received a lukewarm reaction from developers.
This reportedly put Zuckerberg in speeding and led the CEO to personally recruit Meta’s new 50-person “super smart” AI team. Meta also recently also held a stake in training data company Scaleai Scaleai, part of a plan to hire Alexandr Wang, CEO of the company.
While Altman said none of his best people decided to accept Mark Zuckerberg’s generous proposal, Meta managed to attract other well-known AI researchers.
According to BloombergMeta also hired Jack Rae Google Deep stateFor the team and bringing machine learning leader Johan Schalkwyk from AI Voice Startup Sesame AI. Meta reportedly Koray Kavukcuoglu, Google’s AI architect.
Meta also lags behind AI labs with a retention rate of 64%, according to SignalFire’s recent release 2025 Talent Report. In Buzzy AI startup humanitarianism, at least 80% of employees remained at the company at least two years ago, an impressive number in an industry known for its high turnover.
The Yuan representative did not respond immediately from wealth, Manufactured outside of company normal working hours.
AI talent gap
Zuckerberg’s salary is about to reach the pro-sports threshold. wealth Sharon Goldman points outis becoming the standard in industry courses.
Menlo Ventures’ VC Deedy Das told wealth He heard from several people the chief executive tried to recruit. “Zach made a phone call and potential employees tried to convince them to join the $2 million/year floor.”
While Mon may make headlines, it isn’t the only company that goes all out to retain and recruit this talent. Google DeepMind is reportedly executing a six to 12-month non-competitive clause to prevent certain AI researchers from joining competitors, and they will be paid full if they give up.
On Openai, there are rumors that the company will offer high salaries to maintain talent, with senior researchers earning more than $10 million a year. According to Reuters, the company has offered more than $2 million in retained bonuses and stock packages over $20 million to stop the defection of Ilya Sutskever’s new joint venture SSI.
Although Elite AI Labs are working overtime to lock in top talent, the full picture of AI engineers (especially Junior Talent) is not that optimistic. Several recent reports, including SignalFire 2025 Talent Report,,,,, Entry-level recruitment in the technology industry has been suggested to be collapsed.
According to the report, recruitment for middle and senior positions has been recruited from the slump in 2023, but layoffs for new graduates have just begun. Among the big tech companies, new graduates make up just 7% of employees, down 25% from 2023 and 50% from pre-pandemic levels in 2019. For start-ups, new graduates account for less than 6% of new employees, down 11% from 2023 and more than 30% from 2019 graduates.
