Meta Hires Three Senior OpenAI Researchers for Superintelligence Project

Meta Platforms has recently hired three senior researchers—Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov, and Xiaohua Zhai—from OpenAI's Zurich office to join its ambitious 'superintelligence' project. This aggressive recruitment effort comes amid a broader talent war in the AI sector, with Meta reportedly offering signing bonuses of up to $100 million to attract top OpenAI talent, although OpenAI CEO Sam Altman noted that their top researchers have largely resisted these offers. Meta has also invested $14.3 billion for a 49% stake in Scale AI and recruited its CEO, Alexander Wang, to lead the new AI division, underscoring its strong commitment to advancing AI capabilities. Despite Meta's high-profile recruitment campaign, which includes direct outreach by Mark Zuckerberg and social events to court talent, some prominent AI figures like OpenAI co-founders Ilya Sutskever and John Schulman have declined to join Meta and pursued other ventures. This strategic hiring spree reflects Meta's determination to close the gap with competitors like OpenAI and Anthropic in the race to develop superintelligent systems. The ongoing competition for elite AI researchers continues to shape the landscape of artificial intelligence innovation.