Meta just poached three top AI researchers from OpenAI. Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov, and Xiaohua Zhai, who helped build OpenAI’s Zurich office, joined Meta’s superintelligence team. The Wall Street Journal reports this as a solid win for Mark Zuckerberg amid his aggressive AI recruiting.
The hiring blitz is backed by mega-money. Zuckerberg reportedly dangled $100+ million compensation packages, personally messaging hundreds of AI experts through a “Recruiting Party 🎉” WhatsApp chat. He even hosted high-profile dinners in Palo Alto and Lake Tahoe to lure talent.
The recruiting binge has scored big wins before—like grabbing Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang with a $14 billion investment. But top-tier names like OpenAI co-founders Ilya Sutskever and John Schulman have dodged the charm offensive, choosing other startups instead. 
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently dismissed Zuckerberg’s efforts on a podcast:
“I’m really happy that, at least so far, none of our best people have decided to take him up on [those offers].”
