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Meta is Attempting to Poach OpenAI Staff With $100M Signing Bonuses: Sam Altman

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In brief

  • Altman says Meta is offering $100 million signing bonuses, plus substantial annual compensation, to attract AI researchers.
  • OpenAI employees opt to remain despite significant financial incentives.
  • The AI industry’s compensation reaches new heights as companies compete for talent.

Multinational tech giant Meta is offering OpenAI employees signing bonuses of up to $100 million alongside annual compensation packages exceeding that amount, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman alleged on Monday’s “Uncapped” podcast.

Meta had been making “giant offers to a lot of people on our team,” Altman said on the podcast, which aired on Tuesday, and hosted by his brother, Jack Altman.

In the conversation, Altman said that none of his company’s “best people” have accepted these packages to date.

Meta’s recruitment efforts reportedly have CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally contacting researchers and hosting meetings at his private residences in Lake Tahoe and Palo Alto, according to a prior Bloomberg report citing people approached by Zuckerberg.

Altman’s claims of massive compensation offers from Meta appear to confirm a report from The Information last year, in which Zuckerberg allegedly sent emails and “quick offers” for top talent to join his team.



Altman’s comments have not been substantiated. Meta and OpenAI did not immediately respond to Decrypt’s request for comment.

Altman’s podcast conversation comes as Meta attempts to ramp up its AI efforts.

Last week, it invested $14 billion in data-labelling startup Scale AI, in hopes of catching up with its rivals, forming a “superintelligence division” to be led by Alexandr Wang, Scale AI’s 26-year-old founder and CEO.

AI talent acquisition wars

Substantial demand for AI talent has driven up compensation in the industry. Industry data compiled by venture capital firm SignalFire shows that significant changes are underway in the AI sector.

Among elite labs from top AI firms, top talent is getting locked in: Anthropic leads with an 80% two-year retention rate, followed by Google’s DeepMind at 78% and OpenAI at 67%.

But while Meta spends $2 million per year for AI talent, it is “still losing them to OpenAI and Anthropic,” according to an X post by Deedy Das, principal investor at Menlo Ventures.

The report also shows that top AI talent is gravitating toward Anthropic, which is pulling in more employees from rivals like DeepMind and OpenAI than it’s losing. 

DeepMind is considered one of the most significant sources of talent for other labs, suggesting it’s facing considerable attrition. Meanwhile, smaller players like Hugging Face are gaining traction, pulling researchers from bigger firms.

Some companies, such as Safe Superintelligence (SSI), founded by former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, offered retention packages that included $2 million bonuses and equity increases of $20 million or more, with some arrangements requiring one-year commitments for full compensation, according to a Reuters report in May.

Those moves have opened scrutiny from the U.S. government, with three senators calling the practice into question in an open letter last year.

Edited by Sebastian Sinclair

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ChatGPT logo /Sam Altman
Gaming Gear

Sam Altman doesn’t think you should be worried about ChatGPT’s energy usage – reveals exactly how much power each prompt uses

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  • Sam Altman says a ChatGPT prompt uses “0.34 watt-hours” of electricity, roughly one second of an oven
  • He also says a single ChatGPT prompt uses “0.000085 gallons of water; roughly one-fifteenth of a teaspoon”
  • While that’s not a lot in isolation, ChatGPT has over 400 million weekly users, with multiple prompts per day

OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman has revealed ChatGPT’s energy usage for a single prompt, and while it’s lower than you might expect, on a global scale, it could have a significant impact on the planet.

Writing on his blog, Altman said, “The average query uses about 0.34 watt-hours, about what an oven would use in a little over one second, or a high-efficiency lightbulb would use in a couple of minutes. It also uses about 0.000085 gallons of water; roughly one-fifteenth of a teaspoon.”

While that might not sound like a lot as an isolated prompt, ChatGPT has approximately 400 million active weekly users, and that number is growing at a rapid rate. Bear in mind there’s a growing amount of AI tools and chatbots on the market, including Google Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude, so general AI energy usage will be even higher.


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Last month, we reported on a study from MIT Technology Review which found that a five-second AI video uses as much energy as a microwave running for an hour or more. While Altman’s ChatGPT prompt energy usage reveal is nowhere near as high as that, there are still concerns considering how much people interact with AI.

We rely on AI, so is this energy consumption a concern?

There’s a constant concern about ChatGPT’s energy consumption, and it is becoming increasingly vocal as AI usage continues to rise. While Altman’s blog post will put some minds at ease, considering the relatively low energy and water usage in isolation, it could also spark more uproar.

Earlier this week, a mass ChatGPT outage led to millions of people unable to interact with the chatbot. Over the 10 hour plus period, I received emails from thousands of readers who gave me a new perspective on AI.

While I’d be lying if I said AI’s energy consumption doesn’t concern me, it would be unfair to overlook the positives of the technology and how it is improving the lives of millions.

The climate crisis is not limited to me and you, but unfortunately, it’s the working class that ultimately pays the price. ChatGPT’s energy consumption at a mass scale may be a severe problem in the future, but then again, so are the private jets flying 10-minute flights.

The AI climate concerns are not black and white, and those who criticise the impact of the technology on the planet are equally vocal about the impact of other technologies. That said, we’re only at the beginning of the AI revolution, and energy consumption will continue to rise. At what point should we be worried?

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