Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META, ETR:FB2A, SWX:FB) has hired three high-profile researchers from OpenAI, marking a notable win in its aggressive campaign to attract top AI talent.
Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov, and Xiaohua Zhai, who helped establish OpenAI’s Zurich office, have joined Meta’s superintelligence team, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The hires come amid reports that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is offering compensation packages exceeding $100 million to lure AI specialists.
He has also reportedly been contacting hundreds of researchers directly via WhatsApp, coordinating through a private “Recruiting Party” chat and hosting dinners to court candidates.
Despite some success, including a $14 billion investment deal with Scale AI’s CEO Alexandr Wang, Meta has yet to secure bigger names like OpenAI co-founders Ilya Sutskever and John Schulman, who have launched their own ventures.
OpenAI’s Sam Altman has publicly downplayed the impact of Meta’s recruitment push.