Meta is offering substantial multimillion-dollar compensation packages to attract AI researchers to its new superintelligence lab. However, reports of $100 million signing bonuses are inaccurate, according to a poached researcher and internal meeting comments.
CTO Andrew Bosworth clarified that such high figures might be part of a four-year total pay package for senior leadership roles, primarily through restricted stock units (RSUs) tied to tenure or performance.
Researcher Lucas Beyer, who joined Meta from OpenAI, refuted claims of a $100 million signing bonus. Meta's focus is on entertainment AI, leveraging its Quest VR headsets and Ray-Ban and Oakley AI glasses.
While not distributing $100 million bonuses, Meta is still investing heavily in AI talent, with examples like the hiring of OpenAI's Trapit Bansal and an investor mentioning an AI researcher turning down an $18 million offer from Meta.