Elon Musk has taken a jab at Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg over reports that Meta is offering massive pay packages to lure top AI talent from other tech giants. Musk, who runs the AI company xAI, says his team has managed to hire some of Meta’s best engineers without throwing huge amounts of money at them.
“Many strong Meta engineers have and are joining xAI, and without the need for insane initial comp,” Musk posted, suggesting that people are joining xAI because of its vision, not just the paycheck. He added that while the salaries at xAI are still “great,” they’re not unsustainably high like some of Meta’s offers.
Musk’s comment was a clear message to Zuckerberg: focus on building something meaningful instead of trying to buy talent. “Do something great and your comp can shift substantially higher,” Musk said, pointing to xAI’s performance-based pay model.
The discussion comes as Meta is reportedly offering jaw-dropping compensation up to $250 million in some cases to attract AI researchers from companies like Google, Apple, and OpenAI. But not everyone is impressed.
Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic AI, also criticized Meta’s approach. He said it’s unfair to throw huge offers at individuals while ignoring equally talented team members. “If Mark Zuckerberg throws a dart at a dartboard and it hits your name, that doesn't mean that you should be paid 10 times more than the guy next to you," Amodei said.
He went further, accusing Meta of trying to buy what can’t be bought referring to passion-driven work in AI, which many believe should be about innovation and long-term impact, not just money.
As the race to lead the future of AI heats up, it’s clear that talent is in high demand but not everyone agrees on how it should be rewarded. Musk, for his part, is betting that a mission-driven culture will win out over deep pockets.
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