At least two recent AI recruits have already returned to OpenAI, while hefty pay packages and perceived favoritism toward select hires are fueling resentment.
Meta Platforms, Inc. is reportedly struggling to retain the top AI talent it hired with high compensation over the recent months, even as the social media giant finalizes the structure of its newly created AI division.
Meta’s aggressive push in AI, which includes $60 billion to $65 billion investment in AI infrastructure this year, has made heads turn. Investors and the AI industry are closely watching how those plans play out.
Meta has recruited about 50 people, including at least 21 from OpenAI, more than a dozen from Google, a handful from xAI, and others from Apple, according to information obtained via sources by the WSJ.
Now, at least two have left to join their former employer, OpenAI. Meta managed to retain Shengjia Zhao, who had resigned recently and signed paperwork to join OpenAI. Zhao, ChatGPT’s co-creator, was given a chief scientist title and triple the compensation to say back.
According to the WSJ, some Meta employees are growing uneasy with the high compensation and preferential treatment of some of the new hires.
Meta recently reorganized its Superintelligence Labs team. One of the units, dubbed the TBD Lab, has the most top-level AI talent and is located in an area of the company’s Menlo Park headquarters near CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s desk. They have special badges for access, with their work closely guarded and names not appearing in the company’s organization chart.
In a statement to the WSJ, a Meta spokesman called reporting on the company’s AI operation “navel-gazing” and said, “This is yet another series of false, exaggerated or mischaracterized claims.”
They also said Zhao had been the new team’s scientific lead since Day One and that his role was formalized once the team had taken shape.
On Stocktwits, the retail sentiment for Meta was ‘neutral’ as of early Wednesday. Meta stock has gained 30% year-to-date.
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