Meta's Pricey Pursuit Of AI Talent Draws Mockery From Musk
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) is shelling out staggering sums to lock in elite AI talent, signaling just how high the stakes are in Silicon Valley's AI race.
But not everyone is impressed with the spending power, including Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk.
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What Happened: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly offering nine-figure packages to lure elite researchers from OpenAI, Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), and Alphabet Inc‘s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG) Google.
The latest recruit to reportedly receive an offer is 24-year-old AI prodigy Matt Deitke, a former University of Washington doctoral student.
Deitke initially declined Zuckerberg’s offer, which was said to be worth $125 million over four years—but reversed course after a personal meeting, accepting a revised deal with potential first-year earnings of $100 million.
The blockbuster hire is part of Meta's broader push to dominate AI, with over $1 billion already spent on top-tier talent, including ex-Apple AI leader Ruoming Pang (Apple is also in the AI arms race).
The company also made a massive $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI—a leading data infrastructure startup founded by billionaire Alexandr Wang, whom Meta has tapped to lead its AI efforts.
Zuckerberg’s justification? "If you're going to be spending hundreds of billions…it really does make sense to compete super hard and do whatever it takes."
In 2025, the company's capital expenditures for its so-called Superintelligence Labs are expected to jump to $72 billion. That’s a $30 billion increase from the previous year.
Read Also: Tesla Identity Crisis: Musk’s xAI Vote Could Rewrite The EV Maker’s DNA
Why It Matters: Behind Meta's frenzied hiring spree is a botched rollout of its Llama 4 model, reportedly criticized for mimicking Chinese rival DeepSeek with underwhelming results.
That flop has prompted a full strategy reboot and a scramble for outside brains—leading to hires like Pang ($200M+ package), OpenAI's Shengjia Zhao and Wang's leadership in Scale AI bolstering Meta's data infrastructure capabilities.
It also remains to be seen whether all this hiring will ultimately pay off. Musk, a big spender and AI entrepreneur in his own right, chimed in over the weekend with claims that Meta employees are jumping ship without the megabucks to join his AI startup, xAI.
Musk's counter: "Many strong Meta engineers are joining xAI—without the need for insane comp."
He's also taking shots at Meta's bloated approach, claiming xAI has "vastly more market cap growth potential" and a "hyper merit-based" culture.
His message to engineers: "For ultra-hardcore, @xAI is the place to be."
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