OpenAI’s leadership is treating Meta’s recruitment campaign as a serious internal challenge after four senior researchers left the company for Meta’s superintelligence lab. In a Slack memo obtained by WIRED, OpenAI chief research officer Mark Chen told employees that the company is responding directly to the pressure on its research staff.
The message framed the moment as more than ordinary competition. Chen described a personal reaction to the departures and said OpenAI had already begun speaking with employees who had received offers from Meta.
OpenAI moves to keep researchers from leaving
Chen’s memo was sent to OpenAI employees on Saturday, days after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg successfully recruited four senior researchers from OpenAI. The departures landed at a time when competition for top AI researchers in Silicon Valley is becoming more intense.
In the note, Chen wrote, “I feel a visceral feeling right now, as if someone has broken into our home and stolen something.” He added, “Please trust that we haven’t been sitting idly by.”
Chen said he was working with Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, and other company leaders “around the clock to talk to those with offers.” He also said OpenAI had become “more proactive than ever before,” was “recalibrating comp,” and was looking at “creative ways to recognize and reward top talent.”
That language points to a retention effort built around direct conversations, compensation changes, and broader recognition for researchers whose work is central to OpenAI’s goals. At the same time, Chen said the response would not abandon internal fairness. “While I’ll fight to keep every one of you, I won’t do so at the price of fairness to others,” he wrote.
Meta’s offers sharpen the AI talent fight
The memo comes as Meta has been aggressively building a new AI effort. According to comments Altman made on a podcast with his brother, Jack Altman, Zuckerberg has offered $100 million signing bonuses and year one compensation to some OpenAI staffers.
Multiple sources at OpenAI with direct knowledge of the offers confirmed the number to WIRED, while multiple people at Meta disputed its accuracy. The Wall Street Journal also reported that Zuckerberg has personally reached out to possible recruits.
Chen described Meta’s approach as concentrated on compensation. “Over the past month, Meta has been aggressively building out their new AI effort, and has repeatedly (and mostly unsuccessfully) tried to recruit some of our strongest talent with comp-focused packages,” he wrote on Slack.
A source close to the efforts at Meta confirmed that the company has significantly increased research recruiting, with particular attention on talent from OpenAI and Google. Anthropic was described as a top rival as well, though one source told WIRED it was considered less of a culture fit at Meta.
One source summarized the high-end nature of the recruitment market by saying, “They haven’t necessarily expanded the band, but for top talent, the sky is the limit.” Neither OpenAI nor Meta responded to requests for comment.
Internal messages urge staff to seek support
Chen’s note also included messages from seven other research leaders at OpenAI. Those notes appeared designed to encourage employees to stay and to contact leadership if Meta approached them with an offer.
One research leader, who WIRED did not name because they are not a C-suite executive, told staffers to reach out if they received an offer from Meta. The leader wrote, “If they pressure you, or make ridiculous exploding offers just tell them to back off, it’s not nice to pressure people in potentially the most important decision. WIRED is not naming the leader as they are not a C-suite executive. “I’d like to be able to talk to you through it and I know all about their offers.”
The message reflects a broader concern inside OpenAI: staff are not only weighing pay, but also timing, pressure, workload, and the long-term importance of their decisions. The source article says many OpenAI employees have been grinding 80 hours a week, and that OpenAI is largely shutting down next week to give employees time to recharge. Executives are still planning to work, according to the same sources.
Another leader wrote that Meta knew OpenAI was taking the week to recharge and would try to use that moment to pressure employees into fast, isolated decisions. “If you’re feeling that pressure don’t be afraid to reach out. I and Mark are around and want to support you!” the leader wrote, according to Chen’s memo.
The bigger focus remains artificial general intelligence
Even while responding to Meta’s recruiting drive, Chen’s note suggested OpenAI is also trying to re-center its internal priorities. He wrote that the company had become “too caught up in the cadence of regular product launches and in short-term comparison with the competition.”
A former OpenAI staffer who worked closely with Altman supported that view, saying Altman wanted buzzy announcements every few months. According to the source article, that now appears to be shifting toward a stronger focus on achieving artificial general intelligence.
Chen connected that shift to compute and long-term research goals. “We need to remain focused on the real prize of finding ways to compute (a lot more supercomputers are coming online later this year) into intelligence,” he wrote. “This is the main quest, and it’s important to remember that skirmishes with Meta are the side quest.”
He closed by telling employees he would remain available during the week: “Last but not least I’ll be around this week—recharged and ready to go pound per pound. DM me anytime.” Altman replied on Slack by praising Chen’s role in the response. “It’s been really amazing to watch Mark’s leadership and integrity through this process, especially when he has had to make tough decisions,” Altman wrote. “Very grateful we have him as our leader!”
The episode shows how the AI race is playing out inside the companies building the technology. Models, compute, and product launches matter, but the researchers who can push those systems forward have become a central point of competition between OpenAI, Meta, Google, and other rivals.