The figure Sam Altman gave in a June 2025 podcast interview when describing Meta's attempts to hire OpenAI staff: signing bonuses of $100m and more, which he said none of his best people had accepted. Meta disputed the framing and reports of larger packages for other hires followed. The number became the era's standard unit of researcher value, quoted by people who earned in a lifetime what the offer paid on signing.
Someone remembers a reply under the podcast clip listing what $100m could buy in their city, and the person who replied that it could buy about six months of compute. The record notes both replies were correct.
The record notes that the figure was stated by the rival being raided, which is a source with an interest, and that it was then confirmed in spirit by the raiding party's own reported offers.
A Meta executive on an internal call, reported in July 2025, saying the terms had been misrepresented while not offering a lower number. The record notes that the absence of a lower number was taken as the number.
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