OpenAI CEO Sam Altman sent a heated Slack message to his researchers, slamming Meta’s aggressive AI recruiting strategy as “distasteful.”

Altman claimed Meta failed to hire top-tier talent despite offering packages of up to $300 million over four years and had to settle for lower-priority candidates.

He reassured OpenAI staff that compensation is under review and positioned OpenAI’s stock as having “much, much more upside” than Meta’s. He further warned that Meta’s methods risk fostering “deep cultural problems,” contrasting them with OpenAI’s mission-first approach.

Altman’s message was a response to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg introducing a new initiative called “Meta Superintelligence Labs,” which includes 11 hires from OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic.

According to CRO Mark Chen, OpenAI views Meta’s push as an intrusion — likened to “someone breaking into our home.” The leadership hopes that OpenAI’s mission-driven culture can retain talent against Meta’s high pay offers. Time will tell whether that’s enough to stem the talent loss and retain its AI leadership.