Meta offers multi-million dollar AI pay packages, denies any $100M signing bonuses

Meta is reportedly offering substantial multi-million dollar compensation packages to attract AI researchers to its new Superintelligence Lab. However, contrary to rumors, no one has received a $100 million "signing bonus," as clarified by a recruited researcher and discussions from a leaked internal meeting.

During a company-wide meeting on Thursday, details of which were obtained by The Verge, Meta's top executives addressed the bonus figures mentioned by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, which he claimed Meta had offered to leading researchers.

Meta's CTO Andrew Bosworth suggested that such high figures might only apply to a select few in senior leadership positions, clarifying that "the actual terms of the offer" were not a straightforward sign-on bonus but involved "various components." In essence, it's not an immediate lump-sum payment. Tech firms typically allocate the largest portions of senior leaders' compensation through restricted stock units (RSUs), which are tied to either length of service or performance benchmarks.

A total compensation package approaching $100 million over four years for an elite senior leader is not beyond the realm of possibility at Meta. Most of Meta's named executives, including Bosworth himself, have consistently received annual compensation ranging from $20 million to nearly $24 million.

Altman seemed to imply "that we're making these offers to every single person," Bosworth was quoted as saying during the meeting. "Let's be realistic—the market is competitive, but not to that extreme." (Meta has not yet responded to our request for comment.)

On Thursday, researcher Lucas Beyer confirmed his departure from OpenAI to join Meta, along with two other leads from OpenAI's Zurich office. He stated on Twitter: "1) Yes, we are joining Meta. 2) No, we did not receive a $100 million sign-on bonus; that's inaccurate." (Beyer politely declined to provide further details about his new role to TechCrunch.)

Beyer specializes in computer vision AI, which aligns with Meta's focus on entertainment-oriented AI rather than productivity tools, as Bosworth indicated in the meeting. Meta has already established a presence in this domain with its Quest VR headsets and AI-powered Ray-Ban and Oakley smart glasses.

Nevertheless, in today's competitive AI talent landscape, some of the individuals Meta is pursuing do warrant significant compensation. As TechCrunch exclusively reported, Meta has recruited Trapit Bansal from OpenAI, recognized for his pioneering work on AI reasoning models. Bansal had been with OpenAI since 2022.

Additionally, Scale AI co-founder and CEO Alexandr Wang is set to receive a substantial payout, likely exceeding $100 million, as part of Meta's agreement to acquire a 49% stake in his company. As previously covered, the $14 billion transaction will be distributed to shareholders as a cash dividend. Wang, as a major shareholder in Scale, is almost certainly entitled to a significant portion of these dividends.

While Meta isn't indiscriminately distributing $100 million offers, the company continues to invest heavily in AI recruitment.

One investor shared with TechCrunch that an AI researcher received—and ultimately declined—an $18 million job offer from Meta. The individual opted for a smaller, though still substantial, offer from a more prominent AI startup: Mira Murati's Thinking Machines Lab.