Meta has poached 4 more AI researchers from OpenAI
29 Jun 2025

Meta has hired four more artificial intelligence (AI) researchers from OpenAI, The Information has reported.

The new recruits are Shengjia Zhao, Shuchao Bi, Jiahui Yu, and Hongyu Ren.

Their hiring comes after the recent recruitment of Trapit Bansal, Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov, as well as Xiaohua Zhai, who were working at OpenAI's Zurich office.

Meta's push to bolster its AI team
Recruitment strategy

The latest hires come as part of Meta's aggressive recruitment strategy, especially following the April launch of its Llama 4 AI models.

The models didn't quite meet CEO Mark Zuckerberg's expectations, sparking criticism over the version of Llama used for a popular benchmark.

This has contributed to Meta's push to bring more talent from OpenAI on board.

Back-and-forth between the two firms
Hiring controversy

The recruitment drive has also led to certain back-and-forth between the two companies.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman claimed that Meta was offering "signing bonuses of $100 million," but added that "so far, none of our best people" have left.

In response, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth clarified to workers that while senior leaders may have been offered such lucrative packages, "the actual terms of the offer" were more intricate than a simple one-time signing bonus.