Billion-Dollar Snub: Top AI Talent Rejects Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta Acquisition Offer

In the fiercely competitive generative artificial intelligence landscape, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta Platforms, recently made a significant play to bolster his company’s position. Sources indicate that a few months ago, Zuckerberg extended an offer to acquire Thinking Machines Lab, the burgeoning startup led by Mira Murati, former chief technology officer of OpenAI.

However, Murati, a pivotal figure in the AI world, reportedly declined the lucrative offer, setting off an aggressive response from the Meta chief. Following her rejection, Zuckerberg’s team allegedly launched a “full-scale raid” on Thinking Machines Lab, directly approaching over a dozen of its roughly 50 employees. The aim was to entice them to join Meta and shift their allegiance.

Among the key targets in this recruitment push was Andrew Tulloch, a highly regarded researcher and co-founder at Murati’s startup. This incident highlights the intense talent wars currently underway in Silicon Valley, where loyalty and individual vision can prompt leading figures to turn down even the most substantial financial incentives in the race for AI dominance.