At $250 million, top AI salaries dwarf those of the Manhattan Project and the Space Race

The escalating ‘talent war’ between Silicon Valley’s tech giants has reached new heights with offers to AI researcher Matt Deitke from Meta (previously Facebook) of $250 mi ll i o n o v er f o u rye a rs, an d an u nnam e d e n g in eer b y M e t a CEOM a r k Z u c k er b er g o f$ 1 billion over several years.
The offers have been reported by the New York Times and other outlets and are thought to be related to the race to develop artificial general intelligence (AGI) or superintelligence that can perform intellectual tasks at a human level or better.
These sums dwarf the $10,000 annual salary of J. Robert Oppenheimer, who led the Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb.
In comparison, Steph Curry’s recent four-year basketball contract is worth $35 million less than Deitke’s deal.
This highlights the potential market value that these companies see in AGI and the subsequent war for talent to develop it.

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