Meta Offered A $1.25 Billion Salary To An AI Expert – They Still Said No

Big Tech has been throwing cash around like confetti to snag AI talent, but even the most jaw-dropping numbers don’t always seal the deal. Case in point: Meta reportedly offered one AI expert a staggering $1.25 billion over four years – and still got rejected.

The story came via Daniel Francis, founder of the AI startup Abel, who shared the revelation on social media on Sunday. “That $1.25 billion figure joins a growing body of evidence suggesting that nine- and ten-figure packages are becoming more than mere exceptions,” Francis explained. He claimed the offer worked out at more than $300 million per year, sparking a frenzy of online debate about whether tech salaries have officially jumped the shark.

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Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta. Image @zuck via IG

Francis isn’t a stranger to viral headlines. He first shot to fame in 2023 by staging a hoax pretending to be a fired Twitter employee, a stunt that bizarrely landed him a real job at one of Elon Musk’s companies. His startup Abel now uses AI to generate police reports from bodycam footage and emergency dispatch transcripts. But even he seemed floored by Meta’s willingness to splash this much cash on one person.

And this isn’t an isolated incident. In June, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman confirmed that Meta had dangled signing bonuses as high as $100 million to lure his engineers. Still, he says none of the company’s “best people” have jumped ship. Altman was quick to critique Meta’s approach, saying “missionaries will beat mercenaries” in the long run – a not-so-subtle dig at Zuckerberg’s cash-heavy recruitment strategy.

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Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI. Image via Wikipedia

Meta, meanwhile, is busy building a so-called “superintelligence” lab. It has invested billions in AI infrastructure, poured money into data-labelling firm Scale AI, and even brought on Scale CEO Alexandr Wang to lead efforts. Reports suggest Mark Zuckerberg is personally involved in headhunting, offering seven- to nine-figure deals to reel in the brightest minds.

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But the real question: is this the new normal for AI experts or just a strategic flex to unsettle rivals like OpenAI? Critics argue that piling money on engineers doesn’t guarantee a creative, mission-driven culture. Others wonder if rumours of billion-dollar packages are as much about destabilising competitors as they are about serious offers.

For now, one thing’s clear – Meta is willing to put truly outrageous numbers on the table. But if someone can turn down a $1.25 billion cheque, maybe money really can’t buy everything.