OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on why he isn’t worried about Meta offering crazy salaries for "shiny names" in AI

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman

Silicon Valley’s latest arms race isn’t for products — it’s for people. A fierce AI talent war has erupted, with Meta, OpenAI, and Anthropic vying for the brightest minds in artificial intelligence. Meta, in particular, has gone after “superstars,” reportedly offering up to $300 million over four years to lure top OpenAI researchers, alongside hefty signing bonuses.

But OpenAI CEO Sam Altman thinks the obsession with a select few may be shortsighted. Speaking on CNBC’s Squawk Box a day after unveiling GPT-5, Altman called today’s hiring climate “the most intense talent market I have seen in my career” — but stressed the pool is much deeper than some realise. “Some companies have decided they’re going to go after a few shiny names,” he said. “But I think there are many thousands of people we could find — tens or even hundreds of thousands globally — who are capable of doing this kind of work.”

Meta’s recent moves have been headline-grabbing. The company hired Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang and former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman to lead its new Superintelligence Labs, while also targeting AI veterans from rival firms. Many in the field are earning mid-six-figure salaries, reflecting the sector’s willingness to pay for potential rather than proven track records.

Altman implied that the value of elite AI talent isn’t about résumé prestige but breakthrough potential. “The hope is they know how to discover the remaining ideas to get to superintelligence,” he said, adding that only “a handful of algorithm ideas” — and the minds to find them — will truly move the field forward.