Meta’s AI Talent War: Poaching from Rivals to Build a Superintelligence Team

Menlo Park, California, June 10, 2025— Mark Zuckerberg is waging a high-stakes talent war, personally spearheading Meta Platforms Inc.’s recruitment of top AI researchers and engineers from rivals like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google to form a new superintelligence team focused on achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI). As Meta faces intense competition in the AI race, Zuckerberg’s hands-on approach—reaching out directly to elite talent and offering lucrative incentives—is shaking up the industry, raising questions about the sustainability of this aggressive poaching strategy and its impact on the broader AI ecosystem.

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Zuckerberg’s Recruitment Blitz Targets Elite Talent

Zuckerberg’s push to build a superintelligence team of approximately 50 experts comes at a time when Meta is struggling to keep pace with AI leaders. Sources say he has been personally emailing researchers at Google’s DeepMind and OpenAI, offering million-dollar compensation packages and accelerated stock-vesting schedules to lure them to Meta.

This announcement follows a significant talent drain, with 11 of the 14 original researchers behind Meta’s Llama model leaving, many joining French startup Mistral. Zuckerberg’s strategy includes hosting potential recruits at his homes in Lake Tahoe and Palo Alto, where he pitches Meta’s vision of AGI integration across its social media, messaging, and hardware products, such as AI-powered Ray-Ban glasses.

The aggressive poaching has sparked tension with competitors. Anthropic, for instance, has been successfully attracting talent from OpenAI and DeepMind, with engineers eight times more likely to leave OpenAI for Anthropic than vice versa. Meta’s moves risk escalating this talent war, potentially driving up costs industry-wide as companies compete to retain their top minds. Insiders report that Zuckerberg’s “founder mode” leadership, marked by direct involvement in recruitment, is driven by frustration over Llama 4’s lukewarm reception and delays in Meta’s largest model, Behemoth, which failed to meet performance expectations.

Did you know?
In 2025, the median salary for AI engineers at Meta was reported at $400,000, but top researchers poached from rivals are commanding packages exceeding $1 million, including bonuses and stock grants.

Industry Impacts and Ethical Questions

Meta’s poaching strategy is reshaping the AI talent landscape, with ripple effects across Silicon Valley and beyond. The company’s financial muscle, fueled by its advertising revenue, allows it to outbid many rivals, but this approach is straining relationships with competitors and raising ethical concerns. “When one company dominates talent acquisition, it stifles innovation elsewhere,” said Dr. Sarah Kim, a tech policy expert at UC Berkeley. She warns that Meta’s aggressive tactics could concentrate AI expertise in a few large firms, limiting diversity in research and development.

Moreover, the talent war is exacerbating a global shortage of AI expertise. A 2024 report noted that 76% of companies face a severe shortage of AI-skilled personnel, and Meta’s high-stakes offers—some exceeding $1 million annually—are making it harder for smaller startups and public-sector AI initiatives to compete.

Meta’s planned multi-billion-dollar investment in Scale AI, which provides data services for model training, signals its intent to bolster its infrastructure while poaching talent, potentially including Scale AI’s founder, Alexandr Wang. This dual strategy of investment and recruitment could give Meta an edge but risks alienating smaller players in the AI ecosystem.

What’s Next for Meta’s Talent Strategy?

As Meta restructures its AI division into an AI Products team and an AGI Foundations unit, Zuckerberg’s recruitment efforts are critical to rebuilding expertise lost to rivals like Mistral. The company’s Llama Startup Program, offering up to $6,000 monthly to U.S.-based startups, aims to foster loyalty to Meta’s AI ecosystem, but its success depends on retaining and attracting top talent.

With global AI hubs like Toronto and London emerging as new talent centers, Meta may need to expand its recruitment beyond Silicon Valley to stay competitive.