Here’s what’s on our plate today:

• 🍽️ CEO-level paydays for AI wizards—Meta’s nine-figure bonus binge.

• 🗳️ Would you jump ship for a $50 M bonus and endless GPUs?

• 🧠 Iran cyber alarms, Diddy deepfake fallout, why AI hasn’t nuked McKinsey.

• 💡 Adopt the “one killer prompt-a-day” ritual and 10× your output.

Let’s dive in. No floaties needed…

The Laboratory

Why AI talent is now worth CEO money

Followers of the tech and business world are no strangers to figures in the millions and billions, be it costs, investments, or scaling ideas aimed at massive returns. To ensure returns, companies in the tech world often reward their top employees with handsome salaries that can run into hundreds of millions. Traditionally, such figures are reserved for CEOs, factoring in the value of stock options granted to top executives. This trend, though, is now changing. As companies rush to develop more advanced AI models, they are willing to shell out a lot to make sure they have the right team of researchers that can make their dreams of AGI come to fruition.

A recent example of this was seen when Meta reportedly offered OpenAI staff $100 million bonuses, with even larger annual compensation packages in a bid to get them to join its AI efforts. However, one of the researchers who left OpenAI for Meta, Lucas Beyer, disputed these claims. In a post shared on X, Beyer, a former Google employee who had been with OpenAI since 2024, refuted Sam Altman’s claims that he and other top researchers were paid nine-figure signing bonuses.

This development underscores the intensifying competition for elite AI talent, even as the broader tech industry navigates waves of layoffs in recent years.

So, let us take a look at how and why big tech is laying down the red carpet for top AI talent.  And, how the deep investments, rush for AGI, and desire for AI dominance are fueling the hunt for AI researchers.

The talent war among leading AI companies

Meta is not alone in its hunt for top AI talent; leading AI companies like Google, OpenAI, Microsoft, and xAI are all trying to recruit and retain the world’s top AI researchers, many of whom are responsible for developing foundational breakthroughs in machine learning and generative AI.

The aggressive campaign adopted by Meta currently relies on poaching key talent from OpenAI and Google DeepMind. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has personally reached out to prominent researchers, often bypassing traditional hiring processes and offering multimillion-dollar compensation packages.

According to Reuters, Meta recently hired at least seven researchers from OpenAI alone, including Lucas Beyer and Alexander Kolesnikov, two senior AI scientists behind critical breakthroughs at OpenAI’s Zurich lab. The moves are reportedly part of Meta’s efforts to set up a team of experts to achieve so-called "artificial general intelligence" (AGI), or machines that can match or surpass human capabilities.

Other companies are deploying similar strategies. OpenAI and Google are countering with retention bonuses reportedly reaching $10–20 million and high equity stakes. Elon Musk is also reported to have made calls to close candidates for xAI, his AI company.

These offers reflect a belief that a handful of elite researchers could determine the future direction and dominance of AI development. Beyond salary wars, companies are also investing in large-scale AI infrastructure and freedom of research to lure top minds. Researchers are being promised compute access, fewer bureaucratic constraints, and the opportunity to work on projects as ambitious as artificial general intelligence (AGI).

How the chase for AGI is fuelling the talent war

This talent war between big tech isn’t just about bragging rights. It’s about who gets to define the ethics, direction, and deployment of AI in the years ahead. As the stakes rise, so does the pressure on AI firms to attract the best and brightest minds in a field that is shaping everything from the economy to geopolitics. In the words of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang: “Generative AI is the single most significant platform transition in computing history,” and big tech knows that.

To stay ahead of the competition, companies are relying on the notion that a few people are part of the elite group that has made outsized contributions to the development of large language models, the technology that today’s AI boom is based on, and therefore could make or break the success of an AI model.

The scarcity of talent has also forced companies to look for more creative ways to attract and find talent. Zeki Data, a data firm focused on identifying top AI talent, said it is employing sports industry data analysis techniques like the one popularized by the movie "Moneyball" to identify promising but undiscovered talent.

The role of big investment

Big investments and promises of bigger returns through AI are also forcing big tech companies to shift their focus from non-core projects and IT roles towards AI R&D and infrastructure.

Meta has plunged billions into AI, investing $14.8  billion in Scale AI and allocating $60–65 billion in capex for AI infrastructure in 2025. These investments are directly linked to its aggressive recruitment of elite AI researchers through high compensation and rapid hiring offers, spearheaded personally by CEO Zuckerberg.

Meanwhile, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has committed $8 billion to Anthropic, launched its own AI models (Nova, Sonic), and earmarked $10 billion to expand AI/cloud capacity in North Carolina, promising 500 high-skilled jobs in the process. Microsoft, Google, Meta, and Amazon are collectively channeling $290 billion into AI systems and infrastructure in 2025, a 42% increase year-over-year, generating over 150,000 new AI roles, all of which are driving massive demand for top-tier research talent.

Power, talent, and the future of AI

The intensifying war for top AI talent underscores a fundamental truth about the current moment in technology: breakthroughs in artificial intelligence are no longer limited by compute or capital alone; they hinge on people. As companies race toward the next major leap in AI capabilities, especially in pursuit of artificial general intelligence (AGI), elite researchers have become the single most critical and scarce resource.

This has created an environment where salaries once reserved for CEOs are now being offered to engineers and scientists. While this reflects the sky-high expectations placed on AI’s future, it also raises concerns about concentrating such transformative power in the hands of a few firms and individuals. These companies are not just investing in talent; they are investing in influence over what AI is, how it’s built, and who gets to benefit from it.

However, in the long run, this talent war could reinforce power imbalances in the tech ecosystem and limit the diversity of voices shaping its trajectory.

Bite-Sized Brains

• Iranian hackers eye critical infrastructure: Experts warn Tehran-linked groups are ramping up cyberattacks that could cripple key utilities and transport systems.

• Fake Diddy deepfakes flood YouTube: AI-generated videos mimic the rapper’s image and voice, forcing takedowns and reigniting calls for stricter platform safeguards.

• AI won’t eat McKinsey—yet: Analysts say large language models will chip away at consulting fees, but human expertise still anchors the industry—for now.

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