Sam Altman: Meta tried to lure OpenAI specialists with bonuses of $100 million

GateUser-d29924af · 2025-06-18T03:19:57+00:00

OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman revealed that Meta offered over $100 million to lure key personnel from his company, but none accepted, citing a shared mission for AGI. He pointed out that Meta's focus on profit hampers innovation. Meanwhile, OpenAI is developing an AI-based social network. Competition with Meta intensifies as both companies strive for leadership in AI and AGI development.

GateUser-d29924af

2025-06-18 03:19:57

Abstract generation in progress

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stated that Meta offered leading specialists at the company compensation exceeding $100 million to transition to the corporation. He shared this during a podcast with his brother Jack Altman. According to him, offers were made to key employees, but none of them left.

The CEO of OpenAI suggested that the team stayed due to their belief in the mission to create superintelligence (AGI), which Meta does not share. He added that “Meta’s focus on money is unlikely to create a strong culture of innovation.” Altman also emphasized that he believes his company is more capable of breakthroughs than its competitors.

According to sources, Meta tried to poach researcher Noam Brown and Google AI architect Koray Kavukcuoglu, but both declined. Despite this, Meta attracted Jack Ray from DeepMind and Johan Schalkwijk from Sesame AI. There were also reports of significant investments in Scale AI — the company founded by Alexander Wang, who has now become the head of Meta’s superintelligence team.

Altman also mentioned that the corporation’s efforts have not “worked out as well as they had hoped”. He respects some aspects of the company but does not believe Meta is capable of true innovation in AI. Against this backdrop, OpenAI is preparing to release an open model that could strengthen its leadership, the businessman noted.

The head of OpenAI also hinted at an internal development of a social network based on AI. According to him, it will generate feeds based on user preferences, unlike traditional algorithms. Meanwhile, Meta is experimenting with Meta AI, but the project has faced criticism for the AI’s overly personal responses.

Competition between Altman and Zuckerberg is intensifying, analysts note. In their opinion, Meta must quickly strengthen its team and build a product strategy to not fall behind OpenAI, Anthropic, and DeepMind in the race for AGI and next-generation AI applications.

We remind you that we wrote that OpenAI received $200 million to integrate its products into the structure of the U.S. Department of Defense.

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