The war for talent — it’s like that!

🍲 Mark Zuckerberg goes to incredible lengths for talent: he brought homemade soup to an OpenAI engineer to poach them to Meta

The head of research at OpenAI, Mark Chen, said that Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, personally came to a competitor’s office with homemade soup, trying to lure one of the top engineers. According to Chen, in a growingly competitive environment, the largest AI labs are willing to take the most unexpected steps to attract valuable specialists. In the Core Memory podcast, he admitted that such a gesture from Zuckerberg seemed “shocking,” but later he himself used a similar approach when trying to hire a specialist from Meta.

Chen emphasized that Meta actively tries to poach researchers and engineers from OpenAI, which, in his opinion, confirms the company’s leadership in the industry. “Any new company starts by trying to hire people from OpenAI. They need our experts, our vision,” he said.

In June, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman previously reported that Meta offered OpenAI engineers signing bonuses of up to $100 million. According to him, at that time it was not possible to poach key employees, although later one of the creators of ChatGPT, Shenzjia Zhao, did move to Meta’s superintelligence division. Chen noted that Meta tried to take “half” of his team but was unsuccessful. Despite pressure from competitors, OpenAI so far manages to retain its top specialists.

In the rapidly evolving AI landscape, top researchers have become extremely rare and expensive resources. “It’s like looking for LeBron James. There are very few people like that,” noted former Databricks VP of AI, Navin Rao.

And here’s the paradox: one of the richest people on the planet, Mark Zuckerberg, acts as a “courier” — personally delivering a thermos of soup to a competitor’s office. He has an HR department, recruiters, and billions of dollars, but for success in the war for talent, that wasn’t enough — personal attention, a gesture that shows care and motivation, was required.

While many think about whether it’s worth calling a client again or revisiting a deal, Zuckerberg shows that real competition for talent requires much more — sometimes literally a hand-delivered gesture of attention.

⚡ The conclusion is simple: if the founder of a company is ready to “work as a courier” for results, then we certainly shouldn’t hesitate to pick up the phone or put in extra effort. The war for rare talent is not only about money; it’s about attention, care, and a willingness to take unconventional steps for success.