These AI experts are getting offered boatloads of cash by Zuckerberg

Mark Zuckerberg isn't waiting for AI talent. He's opening up the checkbook like he's an NFL GM trying to reach the Super Bowl.Why it matters: Some top executives and researchers in AI are moving from companies like Apple and OpenAI to Meta as Facebook's parent company looks for any leg-up in the race to build the top AI products.Meta recruits top AI expertsDriving the news: Zuckerberg has been dishing out massive compensation packages to AI experts and talent like they're pro athletes or Hollywood stars.One prospect received an offer "worth as much as $1.5 billion over at least six years," per The Wall Street Journal."Last year, the cost of a top, world-class deep learning expert was about the same as a top NFL quarterback prospect," Peter Lee, Microsoft's head of research, told Bloomberg BusinessWeek. "The cost of that talent is pretty remarkable."Yes, but: The packages are often heavily weighted toward stock options over cash, which means their value could largely evaporate if Meta's stock drops.Meta has generally pushed back against claims of massive signing bonuses, too.You're probably familiar with the NFL and NBA stars who make bank for their talents. But identifying AI wizards isn't so easy.Meta declined to comment on AI recruit salaries and compensation packages.Here's a rundown of the AI prodigies getting offered boatloads of cash by Zuckerberg.Alexandr WangWang was brought into Meta when the company invested billions into Scale AI for a 49% stake. Wang, the company's CEO, was moved over to Meta in the deal to lead AI efforts and focus on "superintelligence."Since then, Wang has joined Zuckerberg in recruiting top AI experts to build out their team.Matt DeitkeWhat to know: Deitke, an artificial intelligence "whiz kid," was recruited by Meta to be an AI researcher.The 24-year-old dropped out of the University of Washington. But he's worked at the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, an AI lab in Seattle, according to the New York TimesThere, he started Molmo, an A.I. chatbot that helps build images, text and sounds.By the numbers: NYT reports Deitke's deal with Meta is "$250 million over four years, with potentially up to $100 million of that to be paid in the first year."Andrew TullochZoom in: Tulloch is a leading researcher and co-founder of Thinking Machines Lab, an AI startup, per the Wall Street Journal. The Australia native previously worked at Facebook on machine learning, WSJ reports. He was recruited from Facebook for OpenAI once the company started taking off. Now, Meta has sought to win him back.By the numbers: Meta reportedly offered Tulloch "a billion-dollar package that could ... have been worth as much as $1.5 billion over at least six years," WSJ reports. Meta disputes this figure. Tulloch hasn't accepted Meta's offer.What they're saying: Meta spokesman Andy Stone called the reports of Tulloch's offer "inaccurate and ridiculous" in a statement to Axios.Shengjia ZhaoContext: Zhao was the former lead scientist at OpenAI and a co-creator of ChatGPT and GPT-4. He leads Meta's new superintelligence team, where he works alongside Zuckerberg and Wang on advancing AI models."In this role, Shengjia will set the research agenda and scientific direction for our new lab working directly with me and Alex," Zuckerberg wrote on Threads.The Information reported in June that Zhao was one of several AI recruits for Meta, including OpenAI researchers Jiahui Yu, Shuchao Bi, and Hongyu Ren.Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov, Xiaohua ZhaiWhat to know: Beyer, Kolesnikov and Zhai were three of the top researchers at OpenAI's Zurich office before they were poached by Meta. The three helped launch the Zurich office after joining OpenAI from Google DeepMind.Follow the money: Multiple reports suggested the trio was given a $100 million sign-on bonus. Beyer himself called it "fake news."Ruoming PangDetails: Pang, an AI executive for Apple who led a team running the company's foundation AI model, was one of the biggest recent Meta hires. A well-known engineer and manager, Pang previously moved from Google parent company Alphabet to Apple in 2021.By the numbers: Pang's offer was worth in the "tens of millions of dollars per year," per Bloomberg.Nat FriedmanFlashback: Zuckerberg announced in June that Friedman, the former GitHub CEO, had been hired to work on the superintelligence lab with Wang.Friedman's hire was expected since he had previously worked with AI investment firms and had served on the Meta Advisory group."He already has a good sense of our roadmap and what we need to do," Zuckerberg said in a memo.Daniel GrossDetails: Gross departed startup Safe Superintelligence Inc. for Meta. Zuckerberg started recruiting Gross after Meta failed to acquire SSI earlier in 2025.Gross was previously a tech investor with Friedman.Trapit BansalDetails: Bansal is an AI researcher who previously worked for OpenAI, where he was a foundational co-creator of OpenAI's first AI reasoning model, o1. He also worked with Microsoft, Google and Facebook as an intern, according to his website.What they're saying: Bansal is seen as someone who could help Meta develop a competitive AI reasoning model, something it doesn't currently offer to the public, TechCrunch reports.Other top AI recruits for MetaZoom out: Meta named several other recruits for the new superintelligence lab. Joel Pobar previously worked at Meta on machine learning before jumping to Anthropic.Anton Bakhtin previously helped develop Claude at Anthropic. Bowen Zhang was an instrumental AI researcher at Apple.Mark Lee and Tom Gunter were two other AI experts snagged from Apple.Tianhe Yu, Cosmo Du and Weiyue Wang were all brought into Meta. The trio worked on the Gemini model.Go deeper: Wizards, not workers, win AI's talent lotter.Editor's note: This story has been updated with a Meta statement.

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