Top researcher who quit OpenAI to join Meta calls out Sam Altman for ‘fake news’ | Trending

Jun 30, 2025 08:58 AM Lucas Beyer, a former OpenAI researcher, dismissed Altman’s claims that Meta paid $100 million to the OpenAI employees Mark Zuckerberg has poached three of OpenAI’s top researchers for Meta – but contrary to Sam Altman’s claims, they did not get $100 million as a sign-on bonus. Lucas Beyer, a former OpenAI researcher, dismissed Altman’s claims that Meta paid $100 million to the OpenAI employees joining its superintelligence team. Mark Zuckerberg (L) and Sam Altman (R) are locked in a race over AI.(AP, Reuters) Beyer took to social media to set the record straight after OpenAI CEO Sam Altman claimed that Meta offered his employees bonuses of $100 million to recruit them. Who are the OpenAI researchers joining Meta?According to a Wall Street Journal report, the top OpenAI researchers who quit the ChatGPT-maker are Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov, and Xiaohua Zhai. All of them worked out of OpenAI’s Zurich office. What did Sam Altman say about $100 million bonus?During an appearance on the Uncapped podcast in mid June, OpenAI’s Altman claimed that Meta “started making giant offers to a lot of people on our team” like “$100 million signing bonuses, more than that (in) compensation per year.” And how did Lucas Beyer refute this claim?  Lucas Beyer, a former Google employee who had been with OpenAI since 2024, recently quit the AI firm to join Meta. In a post shared on X, he refuted Sam Altman’s claims that he and other top researchers were paid nine figure signing bonuses. “Hey all, couple quick notes: 1) yes, we will be joining Meta. 2) no, we did not get 100M sign-on, that’s fake news,” Beyer posted on X. In the comments section, he took a direct dig at Altman’s claims – “Thank God Sam let me know I’ve been lowballed,” Beyer wrote in a tongue-in-cheek response to an X user. Why has Meta ramped up hiring?According to Reuters, Meta, once recognized as a leader in open-source AI models, has suffered from staff departures and has postponed the launches of new open-source AI models that could rival competitors like Google, China’s DeepSeek and OpenAI. News / Trending / Top researcher who quit OpenAI to join Meta calls out Sam Altman for ‘fake news’ See Less