Meta works to win AI race with money, finds not all can be bought, Verge says

Meta (META) has reportedly poached as many as 10 of OpenAI’s top researchers and model developers, with some of its pay packages totaling up to $300M over four years, Hayden Field of The Verge reports. However, money can’t buy everyone, and Anthropic and DeepMind have reported fewer defections to Meta than Microsoft-backed (MSFT) OpenAI due to employees’ belief in the companies. Additionally, in a sector where almost any company will offer job security and a good salary, experienced AI engineers and researchers want to work somewhere that aligns with their values, leading to some turning down Meta’s advances. But, especially at OpenAI, Meta has found the dollar value of company loyalty and has exceeded it. “For the people that were that mission-driven, there’s already been so much organizational turbulence…that people are less anchored to the institution itself, so it’s easier to poach,” one source familiar with the situation told The Verge.