OpenAI chief Sam Altman claims Meta are trying to lure his staff with mega-money offers

OpenAI boss Sam Altman has claimed that Meta are trying to lure members of his staff with $100 million “signing bonuses” as the social media behemoth attempt to boost the artificial intelligence element of its operations.

OpenAI boss Sam Altman says members of his staff have received “giant offers” from rival tech company Meta.

The tech chief has revealed that Meta – which owns platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – is attempting to lure top members of his team with $100 million “signing bonuses”.

Altman said on his brother Jack’s Uncapped podcast: “They started making giant offers to a lot of people on our team. You know, like $100 million signing bonuses.”

The entrepreneur revealed that Meta’s attempts to tempt his best staff to jump ship have been unsuccessful thus far.

Altman said: “None of our best people have decided to take them up on that.”

Meta is attempting to boost the artificial intelligence (AI) aspect of its business and recently spent $14 billion (£10.4 billion) to buy 49 per cent of the startup Scale AI but their approach to the tech has been criticised by Altman.

He said: “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.”

Meta have not commented on Altman’s claims but industry expert Indranil Bandyopadhyay claims that the figures reflect the belief in the tech world that a “handful of elite researchers and engineers can provide a decisive competitive advantage”.

The principal analyst at Forrester says that talent acquisition in the AI industry is a “high-risk, high-reward gamble”.

He told the BBC: “Whether this intense level of investment is sustainable remains to be seen, but for now, the AI gold rush continues at a breakneck pace, with talent at its most precious and fiercely contested resource.”