Meta tried to snatch top talent from OpenAI with $100 million signing bonuses, says OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
Altman revealed on the “Uncapped” podcast that Meta launched giant offers to many OpenAI employees.
But so far, no key OpenAI staff have bitten. 
Meta refused to comment on the report.
Altman slammed Meta’s AI progress as underwhelming but said he respects their aggressive push.
“They started making giant offers to a lot of people on our team,” Altman said.
“You know, like $100 million signing bonuses.”“None of our best people have decided to take them up on that.”
“Their current AI efforts have not worked as well as they have hoped and I respect being aggressive and continuing to try new things.”
“There’s many things I respect about Meta as a company, but I don’t think they’re a company that’s great at innovation.
I think we understand a lot of things they don’t.”
This comes as Mark Zuckerberg is personally building a new AI team aiming for “superintelligence” that outperforms humans.
Reports say Zuckerberg is so frustrated that he’s meeting AI experts at his homes and rearranged Meta’s Menlo Park HQ to keep this team close.
Last week, Meta took a $14.3 billion stake in Scale AI, hiring its young CEO Alexandr Wang and bringing some Scale staff onboard to fuel the push.
Zuckerberg’s AI drive has intensified after OpenAI’s rapid rise, but challenges remain for Meta’s AI ambitions.
