Mark Zuckerberg Is Offering AI Researchers Over $1 Billion, and They’re Still Saying No

Meta’s recent hiring spree for its ambitious Superintelligence Labs has revealed just how far the AI talent war has escalated , and just how badly some top researchers want to avoid working with Mark Zuckerberg.

According to a Futurism report citing Wired, Meta has been approaching top talent at Thinking Machines Lab (TML), the AI startup founded by former OpenAI executive Mira Murati, with offers that seem almost unreal. One researcher was reportedly offered over $1 billion in compensation spread over four years. Despite the life-changing sum, not a single person from TML has accepted Meta’s offers.

Billion-Dollar Temptation

The scale of Meta’s recruiting push is staggering. These packages likely include a mix of salary, sign-on bonuses, and multi-year stock options that could theoretically total a billion dollars if Meta stock performs well. For context, such offers are exceedingly rare in the tech world, even at the peak of Silicon Valley’s hiring wars.

Yet the refusal of these offers signals a deeper problem for Meta. Even when faced with the potential of generational wealth, these researchers have opted to stay put. TML itself has recently ballooned to a $12 billion valuation, giving it both prestige and the resources to retain its top minds without leaning on Big Tech.

Why Meta’s Superintelligence Push Feels Desperate

Meta’s struggle isn’t just about competition for talent , it’s about perception. Zuckerberg’s Superintelligence Labs were created as a bold response to the dominance of OpenAI and Google DeepMind in the AI race. His goal: to create “personal superintelligence,” a lofty vision that implies AI assistants far more capable than today’s chatbots.

To support this, Meta has already poached high-profile figures, including:

• Ruoming Pang, formerly of Apple’s “Apple Intelligence” initiative.
• Alexandr Wang, the 28-year-old cofounder of Scale AI, now leading the new lab.

But Wired’s sources suggest some AI researchers are wary of the leadership’s “relative lack of experience” and unimpressed with Meta’s culture. Coupled with recent controversies around Llama 4 benchmarks and the company’s ongoing struggle to keep up with rivals, Meta’s appeal to top-tier researchers remains shaky.

A Sign of the AI Gold Rush , and Its Risks

This story reflects the fever pitch of today’s AI gold rush. Startups are reaching double-digit billion valuations in record time, and Big Tech companies are spending astronomical sums to secure the expertise that could define the next decade of computing.

However, there’s a shadow over the hype:

• Unclear ROI: Despite billions invested, sustainable business models for frontier AI remain elusive.
• Bubble Concerns: Economists are increasingly comparing the current boom to the dot-com era, where market excitement outran real-world profitability.
• Researcher Leverage: The balance of power has shifted toward elite AI engineers, who can reject billion-dollar offers with confidence that other opportunities , and funding , will follow.

Meta’s Uphill Battle

For Zuckerberg, the refusals from TML highlight an uncomfortable reality. Money alone may not be enough to buy credibility or culture in the AI world. The optics of Meta “throwing cash” at researchers , only to be turned down , feed into the narrative that the company is trailing in a race defined not just by technology, but by trust, leadership, and vision.

As the AI arms race accelerates, Meta may continue to spend billions trying to catch up. But the fact that billion-dollar offers are going unanswered underscores a new truth of the AI era: the people building the future are now in control, and they are choosing more than just money.