OpenAI employee set to join Meta calls the ‘$100 million signing bonus’ fake news

However, this might not be the case. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Lucas Beyer, who is currently working at OpenAI and will soon join Meta, says that the $100 million sign-up bonus is “fake news.”

Beyer, along with fellow researchers Alexander Kolesnikov and Xiaohua Zhai, was part of OpenAI’s Zurich office.

The Wall Street Journal first reported their exit, describing it as part of Meta’s aggressive push to close the gap with AI leaders like OpenAI and Google.

This hiring spree follows claims from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who recently accused Meta of offering OpenAI employees $100 million bonuses to jump ship.

Meta is currently racing to build a “superintelligence team”—a specialized group focused on developing Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), AI systems capable of performing tasks as well as or better than humans.