Microsoft Poaches Meta Talent: Mandatory Salary Matching, Fast Approval

Mark Zuckerberg and Microsoft CEO Nadella

Tech News, Beijing Time August 13th, Microsoft is in a fierce battle to recruit Meta's AI talent. According to internal sources and internal files reviewed by Commercial Times, Microsoft has compiled a list of its most needed Meta engineers and researchers, and is launching a new process to make its recruitment conditions more competitive, including mandatory matching of Meta's top-notch salaries for top talents.

Microsoft recently released a stunning financial report, driving its market value to over $400 billion at one point, largely due to the surge in demand for generative AI. To maintain this good development momentum, Microsoft needs to attract top-notch AI engineers and researchers.

Matching Top Salaries

However, matching Meta's salary levels is not an easy task for Microsoft. Meta has consistently offered nine-figure salaries to top AI talents. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has revealed that Meta paid out $100 million in signing bonuses to recruit its engineers. Recently, Meta has even offered a compensation package of up to $250 million to lure AI researchers.

Internal files reviewed by Commercial Times show that Microsoft is also providing multimillion-dollar salary packages. Two insiders familiar with the process said that companies are increasingly offering multimillion-dollar signing bonuses to AI talents.

These sources revealed that Microsoft's AI team, led by Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of DeepMind, and CoreAI team, led by Jay Parikh, former Meta engineering VP, both have dedicated recruitment teams to develop competitive salary packages.

Microsoft

A recent organizational chart reviewed by Commercial Times shows that many of the key members are former Meta colleagues.

Microsoft has prepared an electronic spreadsheet detailing its priority target list, including names, locations, and job titles, with multiple tabs dedicated to specific Microsoft teams and positions, such as the virtual lab, generative AI infrastructure, and Meta AI research department. According to one insider, this list is being reviewed by Microsoft's AI team recruitment managers.

24-Hour Approval

To attract top AI talent, Microsoft has launched a new competitive bidding process, requiring recruiters to mark candidates as "key AI talents," which will trigger high-level attention and prompt approval within 24 hours.

Files obtained by Commercial Times show the operation of this process, including providing reasons for candidate selection based on their AI skills and experience, using a private "salary modeling tool" to develop customized salary ranges for candidates, and hiring compensation consultants to assist.

This mechanism is expected to help Microsoft break through traditional salary frameworks and gain an advantage in the battle for AI talent. Commercial Times has recently exposed Microsoft's internal salary guidelines for engineers and researchers, including a highest compensation package of:

$408,000 basic salary, $1.9 million signing stock bonus, nearly $15 million annual stock bonus, and up to 90% annual cash bonuses.

Note that these files specifically note that for top AI talent recruitment, recruiters can apply for special approval to offer even higher salaries.(Author/Rain)