“The war among some of the richest companies on the planet for talent is playing out in an unprecedented frenzy of talent raids, secret deals and betrayals, leading brainy AI researchers whose minds have never been so highly valued to become as rich as NBA players and Hollywood stars.”
– Berber Jin, Keach Hagey, and Ben Cohen
Pay packages of $300M and more are on the table to recruit top AI talent, The Wall Street Journal reports. The competition has surfaced Silicon Valley tensions between being “missionaries,” and “mercenaries.”
The Epic Battle for AI Talent—With Exploding Offers, Secret Deals and Tears | THE WALL STREET JOURNAL | July 2025 | by Berber Jin, Keach Hagey, and Ben Cohen