Overview

• Meta offered Matt Deitke a $250 million compensation package after he rejected an initial $125 million bid, with as much as $100 million payable in the first year.
• At 24, Deitke left a University of Washington PhD program to lead the multimodal AI chatbot Molmo at the Allen Institute and co-founded Vercept, which has raised $16.5 million.
• This record package is part of over $1 billion Meta has allocated to recruit top AI researchers, including more than $200 million offered to former Apple AI lead Ruoming Pang.
• Mark Zuckerberg told investors that building an “elite, talent-dense” team justifies steep pay premiums as Meta boosts spending to compete for breakthroughs toward AGI.
• Some sought-after experts, such as OpenAI’s former CTO Mira Murati and her team, have declined multibillion-dollar offers in favor of mission alignment and culture.