OpenAI Scrambles to Retain Talent as Meta Poaches Top Researchers in Aggressive AI Hiring War
OPENAI is in damage control mode after losing a series of best researchers to compete with Meta, in what quickly becomes one of the most ferocious talented wars in the artificial intelligence industry.
During last week, Meta hired at least eight Openai researchers, including some deeply involved in her fundamental AI reasoning models – repressing an unusually emotional internal response from the management of Openai and triggering a complete examination of the remuneration and retention strategies.
“As someone broke into our house”: the internal memo reveals an alarm
In a release note obtained by Wired, the research director of Openai, Mark Chen, did not chop words describing what the situation looks like.
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“I feel a visceral feeling right now, as if someone had entered our house and stole something,” wrote Chen.
The memo recognized the wave of high -level outings and reassured the employees that the management team – including CEO Sam Altman – worked “24 hours a day to stop the bleeding. Chen said they “recalibrated compensation” and explored “creative means of recognizing and rewarding the best talents”.
The response made after the information according to which Meta had hired eight OpenAi researchers in recent weeks, with recruitment efforts involving the personal awareness of Mark Zuckerberg and offers reaching up to 100 million dollars, although Meta led later that the figure had been exaggerated and undermined as a signature bonus.
Departures are substantial in number and profile. They include:
- Bansal Trapit, a central figure in learning to strengthen Openai and reasoning efforts in AI
- Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov and Xiaohua Zhai, known for their work in computer vision and multimodal AI
- Four additional researchers – Shengjia Zhao, Jiahui Yu, Shuchao Bi and Hongyu Ren – whose expertise extends training and alignment of the fundamental model
According to information and WSJ, the new hires are now part of the Meta AI AI AI Division, an ambitious unit set up to create models of general use that can compete with Openai’s own GPT line and Google Deepmind efforts.
Meta did not hide her desire to dominate the next wave of innovation of AI. Since the launch of its Llama 4 model in April – which would have failed internal expectations – Zuckerberg has doubled, aggressively poache talents and even trying to acquire startups such as a sure supentinement, thinking machines and an AI of perplexity.
Meta’s objective is to match and potentially exceed Openai and Google by developing advanced reasoning models that can fuel business tools, consumer products and AI agents. The newly united team also includes the old CEO of the AI scale, Alexandr Wang, and the former CEO of Github, Nat Friedman. Zuckerberg would be personally involved in some of these recruitment conversations, offering several million dollars packages that include stocks, long -term performance incentives and high autonomy.
OPENAI’S Counter offensive: Pay, goal and retention
Faced with these large -scale losses, Openai reorganizes its internal remuneration structure. The memo of Mark Chen recognized that the staff felt demoralized, especially during the “charging week” of the company. However, he urged employees not to let the “off -band offers” put pressure on their decisions, promising equity and transparency in future changes.
The company’s management team is now committed to employees who have received external offers, while examining how to keep those who remain.
Chen said: “We are recaliting a compat, and we determine creative means of recognizing and rewarding the best talents … But I will not do it at the cost of equity for others.”
A deeper power struggle in the AI world
This talent war does not simply concern wages – it reflects a deeper rivalry between companies that argue the supremacy in what is now the most important and competitive technological race in the world.
OPENAI, known for its pioneering generative AI with Chatgpt, is under pressure to maintain its advance, in particular as Google, anthropic, and now meta, all move aggressively in the same space. Meta’s hiring madness arrives at a time when IA expertise is in ruins and those who can build, align and reason with border models hang an extraordinary influence and pay.
Meanwhile, Sam Altman accused Meta of having exploited open source philosophy while quietly attempting of rival teams. In a recent podcast, he deplored: “They try to poach our people with crazy offers … but none of our best people resumed.”
However, with eight confirmed departures and shaken morale, this assertion is now examined.
