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Meta is going all-in on artificial intelligence, and its wallet shows it. As part of a bold effort to dominate the AI landscape, the tech giant has reportedly offered compensation packages as high as $100 million (approx. Rs 862 crore) to recruit top AI researchers from competitors like OpenAI and Anthropic. Yet, not everyone is biting.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei confirmed the offers. His team has received massive salary deals. But most of them politely turned them down. On Lenny’s Podcast, Anthropic executive Jared Kaplan spoke about it. He gave a glimpse into the fierce hiring war in the AI world.
“They get these offers and then they say, ‘Well, of course I’m not going to leave because my best-case scenario at Meta is that we make money, and my best case at Anthropic is we affect the future of humanity,’” Kaplan revealed. “To me, it’s not a hard choice.”
While he acknowledged that financial security can influence individual decisions, Kaplan emphasized that Anthropic’s mission to align AI with human flourishing keeps many of their researchers grounded.
“My best-case scenario at Anthropic is we affect the future of humanity and try to make AI flourish and human flourishing go well,” he added.
Meta’s Massive Investments in Talent
The figure of $100 million over four years may sound excessive, but Kaplan said it’s very real, and even cost-effective from a business standpoint.
“To pay individuals like $100 million over a four-year package—that’s actually pretty cheap compared to the value created for the business,” he said.
Meta has formed a Superintelligence Team. It is reportedly led by Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang. The team includes at least six former OpenAI researchers. This move shows Meta’s aggressive push into AI. The company is offering huge incentives, signing bonuses, equity grants, and top-tier salaries.
Despite Meta’s unprecedented poaching attempts, Anthropic’s team has stayed resilient, according to Kaplan.
“People here are so mission-oriented,” he noted.
The allure of high pay isn’t enough to eclipse the sense of purpose many employees feel at Anthropic.
Adding to the conversation, Perplexity AI CEO Aravind Srinivas also weighed in on the escalating bidding war.
“You’re encountering new kinds of challenges. You feel a lot of growth; you’re learning new things. And you’re getting richer, too, along the way. Why would you want to go just because you have some guaranteed payments?” he asked.
Even so, Srinivas admitted being “surprised by the magnitude” of the offers and noted the pressure on Meta to deliver: “Failure is (certainly) not an option.”
Meta’s approach to AI hiring reflects a broader trend of companies placing extraordinary value on talent. But as Anthropic shows, not all top minds can be bought, especially when their work is tied to shaping the future of humanity.
