Inc. Magazine
Meta’s $14 billion AI push, including hiring Scale’s CEO Alexandr Wang, has sparked a talent war with OpenAI. While Meta offers huge bonuses, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says culture and mission matter more. His calm memo praised loyalty, hinted at deeper Meta issues, and rallied his team with purpose.
Meta’s AI Talent War Had Reports of $100 Million Bonuses. Here’s Why it Matters
Author: Kit Eaton
Meta hit the headlines last month with a $14 billion investment and its poaching of AI data company Scale’s CEO, Alexandr Wang. The plan is for Wang to lead a new “superintelligence” research group to shape the future of AI technology at Meta. CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s tech behemoth followed this costly maneuver with numerous controversial—and pricey—attempts to lure away top AI talent from rivals like OpenAI and Safe Superintelligence.
Reports suggest that Meta was baiting its recruiting hook with bonuses in the region of $100 million (though later reports suggested merely millions-of-dollars salaries were involved.) For contrast, typical engineer’s salaries at OpenAI, now the market leading AI firm, are in the $100,000 to $200,000 region, Glassdoor reports.
OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman recently spoke up about the raids on his company, and in a memo to staff he dismissed Meta’s recruiting efforts, noting it was “acting in a way that feels somewhat distasteful; I assume things will get even crazier in the future.”
When Zuckerberg announced plans for his new superintelligence unit to staff, he revealed that Meta had lured many former OpenAI staff to join its efforts, according to Wired. In his own staff memo, Altman admitted Meta has “gotten a few great people for sure,” but he made a point of saying they couldn’t poach their top targets, and “had to go quite far down their list; they have been trying to recruit people for a super long time, and I’ve lost track of how many people from here they’ve tried to get to be their Chief Scientist.”
Then his memo took a more personal, belligerent tone: “I am proud of how mission-oriented our industry is as a whole,” he said, but “of course there will always be some mercenaries.”
“Missionaries will beat mercenaries,” he added, casting aspersions on former employees now working at Meta. He spiked the letter with the line, “what Meta is doing will, in my opinion, lead to very deep cultural problems. We will have more to share about this soon but it’s very important to me we do it fairly and not just for people who Meta happened to target.”
Altman also shared thoughts about the company culture at OpenAI, suggesting that “We have gone from some nerds in the corner to the most interesting people in the tech industry (at least).” He also made a case for staff remaining loyal to his firm. “Most importantly of all, I think we have the most special team and culture in the world,” he wrote, then admitted, “We have work to do to improve our culture for sure; we have been through insane hypergrowth. But we have the core right in a way that I don’t think anyone else quite does, and I’m confident we can fix the problems.”
Altman’s words struck a chord with some workers, Wired reported, quoting some workers who commented on the company’s Slack chats that, “Yes we’re quirky and weird, but that’s what makes this place a magical cradle of innovation,” and separately, “OpenAI is weird in the most magical way. We contain multitudes.”
Why should you care about this high-dollar to-and-fro between two giant tech companies, each spending billions to advance AI technology?
Because you can draw some great leadership lessons from both Zuckerberg and Altman. You may choose to see Zuckerberg’s cutthroat effort to advance his own company’s future as an example of strong leadership, though in truth we’ll have to wait a long time to see if his expensive gamble pays off.
Or you could choose to see Altman’s calm, collected and very human memo to his staff as a good example of a CEO who seems genuinely invested in the culture of the company he leads. Altman is a controversial figure, but he wasn’t shy about mentioning the brief ouster he experienced in late 2022 when OpenAI’s board unseated him as CEO, and his memo doubled down on connecting OpenAI’s future to the dedication and unique qualities of its staff.
This doesn’t have the same financial cachet of a nine-figure salary, for sure. But it’s a very human stance. Workplace experts note that leaders who operate with honesty and responsibility can boost their company’s progress by inspiring the workforce.
Credits: TCA, LLC.