Meta is busting myths about $100 million AI signing bonuses. The company is dropping big cash on AI talent, but not handing out giant lump sums like some rumors suggested.
At a leaked all-hands meeting Thursday, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth clarified those mega offers are mostly reserved for a handful of top execs. And the pay isn’t plain cash—it’s spread out through restricted stock units tied to tenure and performance.
Bosworth said, 
“the actual terms of the offer” wasn’t a “sign-on bonus. It’s all these different things.”
“Look, you guys, the market’s hot. It’s not that hot.”
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman claimed Meta was offering $100 million signing bonuses broadly. Bosworth pushed back, saying that’s not the case.
Lucas Beyer, an AI researcher leaving OpenAI for Meta, confirmed on Twitter:
“1) yes, we will be joining Meta. 2) no, we did not get 100M sign-on, that’s fake news.”
Beyer’s work is in computer vision AI, a key area for Meta’s VR and AI glasses ventures. Meta is focused on entertainment AI, not productivity.
The company is still splashing out. Meta hired OpenAI’s Trapit Bansal, known for AI reasoning. And CEO Alexandr Wang of Scale is getting a massive payout thanks to Meta’s $14 billion deal to partly buy his company.
One investor told TechCrunch Meta dangled an $18 million offer to an AI researcher—who turned it down for a startup gig.
Meta is playing big but keeping those billion-dollar rumor checks in place.
