As Mark Zuckerberg staffs up Meta’s new superintelligence lab, he’s providing high analysis expertise pay packages of as much as $300 million over 4 years, with greater than $100 million in whole compensation for the primary 12 months, WIRED has realized.
Meta has made no less than 10 of those staggeringly excessive provides to OpenAI staffers. One excessive rating researcher was pitched on the function of chief scientist however turned it down, in response to a number of sources with direct data of the negotiations. Whereas the pay package deal consists of fairness, within the first 12 months the inventory vests instantly, sources say.
“That’s about how a lot it could take for me to go work at Meta,” says one OpenAI staffer who spoke with WIRED on the situation of anonymity as they aren’t approved to talk publicly in regards to the firm. Different staff mentioned that they had been weighing the cash towards the potential affect they might have at Meta compared to OpenAI. A number of believed their affect could be better at OpenAI.
A senior engineer who spoke to WIRED confirmed their pay was round $850,000 per 12 months at Meta—a powerful sum that pales compared to the packages at the moment on supply. These within the pay band above this engineer (E7’s, in Meta phrases) make on common $1.54 million a 12 months, according to user data submitted on Levels.FYI.
Andrew Bosworth, chief know-how officer at Meta, mentioned that not everyone seems to be getting a $100 million supply throughout a Q&A with staff final week. “Look, you guys, the market’s scorching. It isn’t that scorching. Okay? So it is only a lie,” he mentioned. “We now have a small variety of management roles that we’re hiring for, and people individuals do command a premium.” He added that the $100 million shouldn’t be a sign-on bonus, however “all these various things” and famous OpenAI is countering the provides.
As a degree of comparability, Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, acquired $79.1 million in whole compensation in 2024, most of it in inventory, in response to a financial filing by the corporate. Dara Khosrowshahi, the CEO of Uber, made roughly $39.4 million (once more, largely in inventory) the identical 12 months.
On Monday, Mark Zuckerberg despatched a word to Meta workers introducing the brand new superintelligence group. Alexandr Wang, previously the CEO of Scale AI, is now Meta’s chief AI officer, Zuckerberg mentioned. He’s joined by Nat Friedman who beforehand led GitHub. Collectively, Wang and Friedman will colead a company Zuckerberg dubbed the Meta Superintelligence Labs. The corporate didn’t title a chief scientist or a chief analysis officer as a part of the announcement. Neither Wang nor Friedman are considered researchers, no less than within the conventional sense. Not one of the OpenAI staffers who left for Meta acquired the $300 million supply, in response to a supply with data of the contracts.
Zuckerberg instructed potential recruits they might not have to fret about working out of sources, according to the Wall Street Journal. That’s a lovely supply within the AI business, the place entry to cutting-edge chips, or GPUs, is extremely aggressive, and may affect how impactful the analysis finally ends up being. At OpenAI, researchers have complained that Altman has been identified to vow individuals entry to GPUs, solely to really feel like there was no observe by way of from management.
Zuckerberg has efficiently employed no less than seven staffers from OpenAI for the trouble—prompting Mark Chen, OpenAI’s chief analysis officer, to ship a word to workers over the weekend saying it felt “as if somebody has damaged into our house and stolen one thing.” Chen added that whereas OpenAI is recalibrating its personal compensation packages for high expertise, it gained’t accomplish that on the sacrifice of equity. Chen additionally mentioned that “much more supercomputers are coming on-line later this 12 months.”
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman adopted up with a Slack word on Monday night time, slamming Meta’s poaching makes an attempt and hinting that OpenAI is engaged on recalibrating compensation, WIRED reported.