Microsoft Looks to Poach AI Talent from Meta AI, Offering up to $250 Million Packages
The AI race is now introducing a new trend where the technology giants are offering multi-million dollar packages to talent working in their competitor firms. A recent case has gained momentum where Microsoft has offered a package of $250 million to hire top AI engineers and researchers from Meta.
According to Business Insider, Microsoft has prepared a list of the most wanted and skilled AI professionals working at Meta, along with their names, roles, and locations. The names include the candidates working in different teams like Reality Labs, Meta AI Research, and GenAI Infrastructure. The company is relying on the fast-track hiring process where the top researchers and AI engineers are offered a marvellous package, and they have to respond to the offer within 24 hours.
There is undoubtedly a silent battle for AI researchers and engineers among the technology giants like Meta, Alphabet, OpenAI, Apple, and Microsoft. While Meta is already paying a wholesome package of $250 million to many of its AI researchers, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, shared that the company is paying $100 million in signing bonuses to its engineers.
With a focus on the future, Microsoft seems to be leaving no stone unturned in matching these offers, even though the general pay range in the company varies significantly from these packages. According to internal pay guidelines of Microsoft, the company offers the top-tier packages, which generally include salaries of $400,000, annual stock grants of around $1.5 million, on-hire stock awards worth around $2 million, and annual cash bonuses of around 90%.
The uncommon recruitment drive is led by two divisions of the company, which are Microsoft AI that is headed by Mustafa, former co-founder of Google DeepMind, and CoreAI, overseen by Jay Parikh, former Meta engineering head.
It has been observed that the massive talent hunt, not only in Microsoft but in every tech organization, is followed by significant organizational changes. For example, Microsoft cut around 9,000 jobs in the previous years to reallocate its resources around AI talent.
Microsoft currently operates with a valuation of $4 trillion that also includes its several investments in the AI sector. However, the competition for tech talent is expected to remain unchanged as every company is actively seeking AI professionals to turn their vision into reality.
