Meta vs. OpenAI compete to get the best talent

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, recently denounced that Meta is offering signing bonuses of up to $100 million to OpenAI employees. This is not an annual salary, but a single bonus, and according to Altman, none of his top researchers have accepted. This episode reflects how Meta vs. OpenAI compete to get the best talent, even reaching absurd levels.

Values vs. money: What really motivates?

Altman suggested that these amounts “don’t build a great culture.” Beyond the provocation, his message points to a key truth: money can be an initial incentive, but it does not guarantee long-term commitment or a sense of belonging. In highly innovative environments, where talent seeks purpose, technical challenges, and autonomy, organizational culture becomes critical.

Recent history in Silicon Valley confirms that money matters… but it’s not enough. Companies like OpenAI, DeepMind, or Anthropic have been able to attract top profiles not only for their salary conditions, but for their vision of global impact. Culture, mission, and professional growth become differential assets as important as equity or benefits.

An irrational war? Wage inflation and inequality

Bonuses of 8 or 9 figures, dinners with Zuckerberg, or calls from CEOs are the order of the day. But this salary race has risks: inflation of talent costs, concentration in large corporations, and a disadvantage for startups. The inequality of conditions also puts the diversity of the ecosystem in check.

But this race has dangerous side effects:

1. It puts startups and emerging companies that cannot compete with these salaries out of the game.
2. It increases inequality within teams, breaking internal equity and affecting cohesion.
3. It shifts the focus from collaborative innovation to purely transactional dynamics.

Corporate strategy: signings, hardware, and data

The competition is not limited to human talent. Meta, for example, not only offers million-dollar bonuses, but has also bought almost half of Scale AI for $14.3 billion, also incorporating its CEO, Alexandr Wang. This move gives it access not only to data experts, but to millions of labeled data, fundamental for training more powerful models.

In addition, there is a parallel race to acquire GPUs, training clusters, rights to datasets, and architecture patents. In this sense, the “talent war” is also an infrastructure war. Whoever controls the resources—human, computational, and data—will have the competitive advantage in the race towards AGI.

The future: What works?

Can a company win this war without playing at the level of Big Tech? The answer lies in the value proposition strategy. The companies that manage to attract talent do so not only with good salaries, but with inspiring projects, accessible leaders, autonomy to experiment, and a culture that promotes continuous learning.

“Employer branding” has become a key tool. Companies are investing in showing their culture, purpose, and social commitment. In addition, flexible work schemes, professional recognition, and opportunities for cross-functional growth are now more decisive than base salary for high-level profiles.

And in Spain? A snapshot of local tech talent

Although the figures from Meta and OpenAI seem distant, the phenomenon has a direct echo in Spain. The brain drain of digital talent to centers like London, Berlin, or Amsterdam has intensified, partly due to the difficulty of competing in salary, but also due to the lack of attractive proposals in culture and mission.

The Spanish ecosystem has promising hubs in Barcelona, Madrid, or Valencia, where many startups struggle to attract developers, data engineers, and AI experts. The pressure of the global market forces local companies to rethink their value proposition: they will not be able to match Silicon Valley salaries, but they can offer projects with impact, flexibility, and community.

In addition, the European Next Generation funds are promoting digitization in strategic sectors, opening new opportunities to retain tech talent in the national territory. To this are added the AI training programs and the creation of technical communities like the ones we promote at My Tech Plan.

Some figures in Spain:

• An AI engineer in Spain earns on average between €35,000 and €68,000, depending on level and city. In Madrid, that average can reach €60,000 per year.

• In 2024 there were more than 151,700 professionals in Data and AI (6,700 in AI), but 30,000 offers were published, of which about 65% remained unfilled.

• In 2025, 3,300 unfilled vacancies are projected, with a salary increase of 18-20% annually in specialized profiles.

• Increasing difficulty of retention: from 12% to 22% of companies report greater difficulty in retaining qualified talent.

• In 2025, 90% of Spanish companies will prioritize talent retention, incorporating AI, flexibility, and training to reduce turnover.

How to get the best talent

The battle for talent in AI is intense: Meta shows muscle with colossal checks, but OpenAI responds with culture and vision. The lesson for companies: attracting talent requires not only resources, but also strategic intelligence and cultural coherence.