In a recent interview on his brother’s podcast, Sam Altman highlighted how Meta was trying to poach some of OpenAI’s top talent by offering $100 million cash packages, and how this attempt had been unsuccessful.
Well, he spoke too early.
Indeed, yesterday, it was confirmed that Meta had successfully poached some top talent from OpenAI.
Indeed, Alexandr Wang, former co-founder of Scale AI, which Meta has “acqui-hired” to boost its AI efforts confirmed the news just yesterday.
What does it mean? What are the implications of it?
In June 2025, Meta executed what may be the most aggressive and successful talent acquisition campaign in the history of technology.
With $100 million signing bonuses, a $14.8 billion Scale AI acquisition, and the systematic poaching of key researchers from OpenAI and Google, Meta has fundamentally altered the competitive dynamics of the AI industry.
This isn’t just about hiring—it’s about building full-stack AI capabilities faster than any organic development program could achieve, while simultaneously weakening competitors through strategic talent drain.
Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
