Meta Snaps Up More OpenAI Scientists in Escalating AI Talent War
In a wider competition to control the development of artificial intelligence, Meta has intensified its hiring efforts, attracting two additional leading OpenAI researchers: Jason Wei and Hyung Won Chung. The duo, previously instrumental in building OpenAI’s foundational o1 and o3 models, will now join Meta’s superintelligence lab.
Wei and Chung have a longstanding research partnership that began at Google, making their joint departure a significant blow to OpenAI. The two follow a wave of high-profile defections that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has orchestrated as part of his multibillion-dollar push to position Meta at the forefront of the AI arms race.
This comes as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman publicly accused Meta of offering $100 million signing bonuses to key researchers in a bold bid to poach talent. While some, like Lucas Beyer, denied receiving such massive payouts, the exodus continues. Beyer and fellow scientists Alexander Kolesnikov and Xiaohua Zhai also confirmed they are heading to Meta.
“Superintelligence or Bust”: Meta’s Grand Ambition
The new hires are slated to join Meta’s growing superintelligence division, a unit Zuckerberg created in a bid to build AI systems capable of reasoning, agency, and learning beyond today’s models. In an internal memo leaked last month, Zuckerberg signaled a shift in Meta’s AI strategy—less open source, more centralized firepower.
Meta’s recent $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI only cemented that pivot. The startup’s CEO, Alexandr Wang, a rising power broker in Washington and Silicon Valley, has issued repeated warnings that the U.S. is falling behind China in the AI race.
Wang, who once shared a house with Sam Altman, called for America to establish data dominance and embed AI throughout federal operations. His ideas are now shaping policy discussions at the highest levels of government—and influencing Silicon Valley’s moral compass on national security.
Altman’s Counteroffensive
Faced with mounting losses, OpenAI has launched a counter-hiring blitz of its own. The company recently secured four high-ranking engineers from Tesla, xAI, and Meta to join its backend infrastructure team. This includes David Lau from Tesla and Angela Fan from Meta, both of whom will work on scaling projects like Stargate—OpenAI’s moonshot supercomputing initiative.
Altman acknowledged that while Meta’s offers have been “insane,” many of OpenAI’s top researchers remain loyal. Still, he admitted the company may need to rethink compensation models to stay competitive.
Meta, once a leader in open-source AI, is now playing catch-up with private, closed-door development—a move that has drawn criticism from transparency advocates. Still, the company’s ability to lure top names and its massive computing capacity have made it an unavoidable force.
Closing the Talent Gap Before China Closes In
The AI industry’s current talent war is more than just Silicon Valley posturing—it’s increasingly viewed as a national security issue. Wang, whose company works with the U.S. Department of Defense, called for deeper collaboration between government and tech.
With researchers treated like star athletes and rival CEOs in open warfare, the AI race is no longer just a metaphor.
“Imitation is good,” Jason Wei once wrote, “but beating the teacher requires walking your own path.”
The question now is: whose path will define the future of AI?
Watch the videos here:
@nypost Alexandr Wang, the world’s youngest self-made billionaire and CEO of $14B Scale AI, warns that if China takes the lead in AI, it could surpass the U.S. in military and cyber capabilities. He emphasizes the need for a national data strategy spanning both public and private sectors.
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