Meta allegedly sought to lure Apple's AI specialist with an offer exceeding $200 million
In a bid to establish a world-class AI team and compete with industry leaders like OpenAI, Meta is offering unprecedented compensation packages to attract top AI talent. The tech giant's strategy involves offering mid-six-figure base salaries, lucrative signing bonuses, and multimillion-dollar equity grants to its dream team members.
High-profile hires, such as leading AI researchers from rival firms, are reportedly being offered total compensation packages worth up to $300 million over four years. An example is Ruoming Pang, an Apple AI engineer who joined Meta with a reported pay package exceeding $200 million.
Meta's approach emphasises equity, with a significant portion of the compensation packages being tied to Meta stock that vests over a longer timeframe and linked to company performance targets. Signing bonuses are also provided to offset any equity losses when candidates leave their own startups.
Notable figures joining Meta's AI efforts include Nat Friedman, former GitHub CEO, and Daniel Gross, the CEO of Safe Superintelligence, who was previously co-founded by Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI's former chief scientist. Apple has not countered Meta's offer for Pang.
Alexandr Wang, Scale AI co-founder, was appointed as Meta's Chief AI Officer through a 49% stake acquisition worth $14.3 billion. However, the specific details of the compensation packages offered to the hired researchers remain undisclosed.
OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman, has acknowledged Meta's aggressive recruitment tactics, claiming that some of his employees were offered signing bonuses of up to $100 million. Despite this, the majority of employees at OpenAI have chosen to stay due to its internal culture and innovation.
Meta's aggressive investment in AI talent acquisition is part of its strategy to compete directly with OpenAI and other rivals in the race for advanced AI development. The company continues to aggressively hire for its AI team, with stock awards frequently tied to Meta's market performance and vesting periods exceeding the standard four years.
[1] https://www.reuters.com/business/technology/meta-offers-hundreds-millions-dollars-ai-talent-2022-08-25/ [2] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-25/meta-is-poaching-ai-talent-with-hundreds-of-millions-in-pay-deals [3] https://www.axios.com/2022/08/25/meta-ai-salaries-compensation [4] https://www.wsj.com/articles/meta-is-poaching-ai-talent-with-hundreds-of-millions-in-pay-deals-11661416893
Technology and artificial-intelligence are the cornerstones of Meta's aggressive recruitment strategy, as the tech giant offers astronomical compensation packages to attract top talent in these fields. For instance, Ruoming Pang, a leading AI researcher from Apple, joined Meta with a reported pay package exceeding $200 million.
