Andrew Bosworth, Chief Technology Officer of Meta Platforms Inc., speaks in a Bloomberg TV interview with a bystander at the Meta Connectivity Event in Menlo Park, California, USA on Wednesday, September 25th, 2024. An alternative to a smartphone.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Openai CEO Sam Altman said on this week's podcast Meta Hanging a $100 million signature bonus in front of startup employees, but the best people in his company chose to stay.
According to Meta Technology chief Andrew Bosworth, Openai has countered Meta's offer.
Bosworth, who joined Meta in 2006 and has been CTO since 2022, said, “The market sets a level of talent here and is unprecedented in my 20-year career as a technology executive.”
The AI employment war got dramatically heated last week when Scale AI co-founder Alexandr Wang said he would join Meta to tackle Superintelligence, a term for technology beyond human capabilities. Meta will invest more than $14 billion in scale AI in exchange for 49% of its shares.
On Thursday, CNBC reported that Meta was about to buy Safe Superintelligence, a new startup from former Openai co-founder Ilya Sutskever, but is hiring now CEO Daniel Gross and former Github CEO Nat Friedman. The two are in a safe emergency position through venture company NFDG.
And early on Friday, CNBC confirmed that Meta had contacted the startup's stump AI about the possibility of an acquisition, but the deal never came to fruition.
“We really believe in a future where close AI is trying to help humans at every stage,” Bosworth said. “Where they can use the extra help, it's there for them. And we've been fortunate that this kind of team can now and more and more internally, together with people like Alex Wang, do what it takes to pursue that vision.”
In the first quarter, principal payments on Meta's capital expenditures and financial leases were close to $14 billion.
“Now,” Bosworth said, “We're filling our investment in that personnel.
In a podcast hosted by the brothers this week, Altman said Meta has pledged more than $100 million in annual pay.
Openai did not respond to requests for comment.
Earlier this month, Openai said its annual revenues reached $10 billion, but the company continues to suffer significant losses.
clock: Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth talks about the military ambitions of the high-tech giant
