Here’s What Mark Zuckerberg Is Offering Top AI Talent

As Mark Zuckerberg staffs up Meta’s caller superintelligence lab, he’s offered apical tier research talent salary packages of up to $300 cardinal complete 4 years, pinch much than $100 cardinal successful full compensation for nan first year, WIRED has learned.

Meta has made astatine slightest 10 staggeringly precocious offers to OpenAI staffers, sources say. One precocious ranking interrogator was sounded connected nan domiciled of main intelligence but turned it down, according to aggregate sources pinch nonstop knowledge of nan negotiations. While nan salary package includes equity, successful nan first twelvemonth nan banal vests immediately, sources say.

“That’s astir really overmuch it would return for maine to spell activity astatine Meta,” says 1 OpenAI staffer who said pinch WIRED connected nan information of anonymity arsenic they aren’t authorized to speak publically astir nan company. Other labor said that they were weighing nan money against nan imaginable effect they could person astatine Meta successful comparison to OpenAI. Several believed their effect would beryllium greater astatine OpenAI.

“These statements are untrue - nan size and building of these compensation packages person been misrepresented each complete nan place,” says Meta spokesperson Andy Stone. “Some group person chosen to greatly exaggerate what’s happening for their ain purposes.”

A elder technologist who said to WIRED confirmed their salary was astir $850,000 per twelvemonth astatine Meta—an awesome sum that pales successful comparison to nan packages presently connected offer. Those successful nan salary set supra this technologist (E7’s, successful Meta terms) make connected mean $1.54 cardinal a year, according to personification information submitted connected Levels.FYI.

Andrew Bosworth, main exertion serviceman astatine Meta, said that not everyone is getting a $100 cardinal connection during a Q&A pinch labor past week. “Look, you guys, nan market's hot. It's not that hot. Okay? So it's conscionable a lie,” he said. “We person a mini number of activity roles that we're hiring for, and those group do bid a premium.” He added that nan $100 cardinal is not a sign-on bonus, but “all these different things” and noted OpenAI is countering nan offers.

As a constituent of comparison, Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, received $79.1 cardinal successful full compensation successful 2024, astir of it successful stock, according to a financial filing by nan company. Dara Khosrowshahi, nan CEO of Uber, made astir $39.4 million (again, mostly successful stock) nan aforesaid year.

On Monday, Mark Zuckerberg sent a statement to Meta unit introducing nan caller superintelligence team. Alexandr Wang, formerly nan CEO of Scale AI, is now Meta’s main AI officer, Zuckerberg said. He’s joined by Nat Friedman who antecedently led GitHub. Together, Wang and Friedman will colead an statement Zuckerberg dubbed nan Meta Superintelligence Labs. The institution did not sanction a main intelligence aliases a main investigation serviceman arsenic portion of nan announcement. Neither Wang nor Friedman are thought of arsenic researchers, astatine slightest successful nan accepted sense. None of nan OpenAI staffers who near for Meta received nan $300 cardinal offer, according to a root pinch knowledge of nan contracts.