Meta poaches top OpenAI researchers for superintelligence push

Meta Platforms Inc. has hired four senior artificial intelligence researchers from OpenAI, further accelerating its aggressive push to build a “superintelligence” team focused on developing AI systems more advanced than humans. According to sources cited by The Information and confirmed by multiple media reports, the new hires include Jiahui Yu, Shuchao Bi, Shengjia Zhao, and Hongyu Ren. Yu previously led OpenAI’s Perception team, while the others were prominent figures in foundational AI research at the ChatGPT maker.

The move comes just days after Meta brought in Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov, and Xiaohua Zhai, three AI scientists from OpenAI’s Zurich office, as part of a broader campaign to assemble elite talent. All these hires are now working under Meta’s new internal “superintelligence team”, helmed by Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang. Meta and OpenAI have not responded to requests for comment, while the four researchers have remained silent on their exits.

Zuckerberg’s hands-on AI talent hunt

Reports suggest Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has personally led the high-profile talent poaching effort. Over recent months, he’s compiled a list of top AI minds, dubbed “the list” inside Silicon Valley, and offered them compensation packages reportedly worth up to $100 million to leave rival companies such as OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Amazon.

Zuckerberg has also been directly reaching out to promising researchers, often after reviewing their published academic work. The recruitment campaign has included participation from other senior Meta executives, coordinated through a private WhatsApp group called “Recruiting Party”, according to the Wall Street Journal.

One recruit described the effort as a deliberate “transfusion from the country’s top AI labs”. Meta’s strategy reflects a growing belief that assembling the right talent will be key to dominating the next era of artificial general intelligence (AGI).

Rivalries and reactions intensify

The high-stakes talent war has drawn strong reactions from competitors. A few days ago, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman criticised Meta’s approach on the Uncapped podcast, hosted by his brother Jack Altman. He called the company’s lavish signing offers “crazy” and warned that upfront guaranteed pay, rather than mission-driven motivation, could damage company culture. “So far, none of our best people have decided to take them up on that,” Altman said.

Meta’s Superintelligence group has taken shape just weeks after the company invested $14 billion into Scale AI, putting Alexandr Wang in charge of its cutting-edge AI efforts. The initiative also follows internal delays in rolling out “Behemoth”, Meta’s next-generation AI model, sparking concern over its AI strategy's pace and direction.

With its latest hires, Meta is signalling its intention to go all-in on superintelligent AI and challenge rivals head-on in what is shaping up to be Silicon Valley’s most intense innovation race.