Latest news with #DarioAmodei
International Business Times
a day ago
- Business
- International Business Times
Meta's $100 Million AI Bait Faces Resistance as Anthropic, Others Hold Ground
July 23, 2025 12:44 +08 Meta is stepping up its AI recruitment game with enormous compensation packages, reportedly offering up to $100 million to top talent in a bid to power its new "Superintelligence Team." However, not all researchers are biting. According to Anthropic's top brass, many within their AI-focused teams are choosing purpose over pay. Anthropic co-founder and CEO Dario Amodei recently confirmed Meta's lucrative outreach attempts, and Jared Kaplan, a key executive at the company, opened up about the intensity of the current hiring war in a podcast interview. While not naming companies directly, Kaplan referenced outsized offers that some of his colleagues have turned down. "My best-case scenario at Meta is we make money. My best case at Anthropic is that we affect the future of humanity," he said. Despite the eye-popping numbers, Meta has allegedly offered $100 million over four years per researcher, Kaplan noted that these deals may actually be "cheap" for the business given the value AI breakthroughs can generate. Still, he emphasized that many at Anthropic are mission-driven, prioritizing long-term impact over short-term financial gain. Meta has already made high-profile moves in this space. In June, the company appointed Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang to lead its Superintelligence efforts and successfully recruited six researchers from OpenAI. These moves show Meta's aggressive play to dominate next-generation AI. Meanwhile, others in the industry are weighing in. Aravind Srinivas, CEO of Perplexity AI, said retaining talent requires more than money. While acknowledging the size of Meta's offers as "surprising," he also noted, "Failure is not an option" at that level of investment. As the AI talent race intensifies, it's becoming clear that for many researchers, the choice isn't just about money—it's about meaning.
India Today
2 days ago
- Business
- India Today
Mark Zuckerberg offered Rs 862 crore salary to lure Anthropic AI engineers, co-founder says his team refused
Meta has been aggressively poaching top AI talent across the industry, offering staggering compensation packages. The company is building its Superintelligence Team and is aiming to dominate the AI field. However, not everyone is taking the bait. Anthropic co-founder and CEO, Dario Amodei, recently revealed that while Meta has dangled offers as high as $100 million (around Rs 862 crore) to recruit top artificial intelligence researchers, his mission-driven team has largely resisted the a recent episode of Lenny's Podcast, Anthropic executive Jared Kaplan opened up about the intense hiring war sweeping the AI industry. Without naming names directly, he pointed to massive signing bonuses offered by the likes of Meta, which he revealed have been turned down by his colleagues. 'They get these offers and then they say, 'Well, of course I'm not going to leave because my best-case scenario at Meta is that we make money, and my best case at Anthropic is we affect the future of humanity,'' Kaplan said. 'To me, it's not a hard choice.'Though he acknowledged that personal circumstances vary, he made it clear that his own priorities lie with Anthropic's long-term mission rather than immediate financial windfalls. 'My best-case scenario at Meta is that we make money, and my best case at Anthropic is we affect the future of humanity and try to make AI flourish and human flourishing go well,' he said. 'For anybody who does get those mega offers and accepts them, I can't say I hold it against them.' When asked about the hefty, outsized compensation packages, Kaplan confirmed the reality. 'I'm pretty sure it's real,' he said when asked about the $100 million signing bonus figure. 'To pay individuals like $100 million over a four-year package—that's actually pretty cheap compared to the value created for the business.'Kaplan's comments come amid the escalating arms race for AI talent. Meta has reportedly been offering unprecedented sums to lure researchers away from rival firms, including OpenAI and Anthropic. In June, Meta even brought in Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang to lead a new "superintelligence" unit, alongside six researchers poached from OpenAI. The company is also not shying away from offering nine-figure compensation packages to top AI minds. These packages often include a combination of base salary, substantial signing bonuses, and significant equity the competition, Anthropic says it's been more resilient than most. 'People here are so mission-oriented,' Kaplan said, stressing that many employees aren't swayed by nine-figure offers when they feel they're contributing to something more Perplexity AI CEO Aravind Srinivas recently weighed in on the trend, saying companies must offer more than just money to retain top people. 'You're encountering new kinds of challenges. You feel a lot of growth, you're learning new things. And you're getting richer, too, along the way. Why would you want to go just because you have some guaranteed payments?' he Srinivas admitted to being 'surprised by the magnitude' of the offers which Meta has been reportedly sending to poach the employees, He said that with this much of investment, 'failure is (certainly) not an option' for the Meta's team.- Ends
Business Insider
2 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
Do you work in tech? Tell us how layoffs are affecting your career
The tech industry faces ongoing layoffs amid rapid AI advancements and other economic pressures. Some tech roles are increasingly in-demand, while others are experiencing a decline. Do you work in tech and have thoughts on how the industry is changing? Take BI's survey below. Industry layoffs from Jan to May are up 35% compared to the same period in 2024, according to career transition firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. While the reasons for workforce reductions vary by company, the layoffs have come during a rapid technological shift driven by the emergence of AI. A 2025 World Economic Forum survey found that 41% of companies globally expect to reduce staff in the next five years because of AI. While no one knows exactly how many jobs will be lost due to "AI exposure", the tech industry might be especially vulnerable. As some roles related to AI research and development have grown in demand, others have been on the decline. Job postings for software engineers, once a staple at tech companies, have decreased as tools like Codex and GitHub CoPilot have automated coding tasks, which make up a large part of the job, especially for early-career workers. Amid a shifting landscape, tech leaders have expressed differing opinions about how AI will transform the job market. Some say that AI will create more opportunities to build and, as a result, more jobs. Others, like Anthropic's Dario Amodei, have issued dismal warnings about the imminent elimination of white-collar roles.
Time of India
2 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Anthropic CEO in leaked memo to employees on planning to seek investment in UAE and Qatar: ‘I really wish we weren't in this position, but we are'
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has sent a memo to its employees informing about the company's plan to seek investment from the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. According to a Wired report, Amodei sent the memo via Slack where he admitted that taking money from Gulf states has ethical risks—but said the company needs the capital to stay competitive. 'I really wish we weren't in this position, but we are,' Amodei wrote. In the memo, Dario Amodei acknowledged that this decision could help enrich authoritarian regimes. 'This is a real downside and I'm not thrilled about it,' he wrote. 'Unfortunately, I think 'No bad person should ever benefit from our success' is a pretty difficult principle to run a business on.' In May this year, US President Donald Trump visited the UAE and Saudi Arabia. The four-day tour was focused on boosting economic ties. Trump was accompanied by tech CEOs that included Tesla CEO Elon Musk , OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang . The CEO said Anthropic will pursue a 'narrowly scoped, purely financial investment from Gulf countries' to avoid giving them leverage over company decisions. However, he warned even this limited approach carries risk. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Sea-Facing 3/4/5 BHKs from ₹5.50 Cr* L&T_The Gateway Enquire Now Undo 'The implicit promise of investing in future rounds can create a situation where they have some soft power, making it a bit harder to resist these things in the future,' Amodei said. 'In fact, I actually am worried that getting the largest possible amounts of investment might be difficult without agreeing to some of these other things.' 'But I think the right response to this is simply to see how much we can get without agreeing to these things… and then hold firm if they ask,' he added. Anthropic's past position on Middle East funding Anthropic had previously avoided funding from authoritarian governments. In 2024, the AI company declined to take money from Saudi Arabia due to national security concerns, as reported by CNBC. But it later accepted a stake buyout worth about $500 million by a UAE firm during FTX's bankruptcy sale. Now, the company appears to be opening up more directly to Gulf investment. 'There is a truly giant amount of capital in the Middle East, easily $100B or more,' Dario Amodei wrote. 'If we want to stay on the frontier, we gain a very large benefit from having access to this capital.' In the memo, Amodei reiterated the risks of locating powerful AI infrastructure in authoritarian countries. 'The basis of our opposition to large training clusters in the Middle East, or to shipping H20's to China, is that the 'supply chain' of AI is dangerous to hand to authoritarian governments,' he said. 'Since AI is likely to be the most powerful technology in the world, these governments can use it to gain military dominance or to gain leverage over democratic countries,' he added The CEO noted a broader trend of tech companies becoming more comfortable with partnerships in the Gulf. 'Without a central authority blocking them, there's a race to the bottom where companies gain a lot of advantage by getting deeper and deeper in bed with the Middle East,' he wrote. 'Unfortunately, having failed to prevent that dynamic at the collective level, we're now stuck with it as an individual company,' Amodei added. In the memo, Amodei predicted the company would face public backlash. 'The media / Twitter / the outside world is always looking for hypocrisy, while also being very stupid and therefore having a poor understanding of substantive issues,' he wrote. He defended the decision by saying it's consistent with how real-world policy works. 'It's perfectly consistent to advocate for a policy of 'No one is allowed to do x,' but then if that policy fails and everyone else does X, to reluctantly do x ourselves,' he explained. Amodei said Anthropic remains committed to not building data centers in the region and to enforcing its use policies. 'We are also interested in serving the region commercially, which is something I think is actually pure positive,' he said. 'In fact, it could have important benefits for the world including improving human health, aiding economic development, etc.' 'As with many decisions, this one has downsides,' Amodei concluded, 'but we believe it's the right one overall.' Google Pixel 10 Series Launch: Everything Coming on August 20 AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
WIRED
3 days ago
- Business
- WIRED
Leaked Memo: Anthropic CEO Says the Company Will Pursue Gulf State Investments After All
Jul 21, 2025 8:46 PM 'Unfortunately, I think 'No bad person should ever benefit from our success' is a pretty difficult principle to run a business on,' wrote Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei in a note to staff obtained by WIRED. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei attends the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January 2025. Photograph:Anthropic is planning to seek investment from the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, according to a Slack message CEO Dario Amodei sent to staff Sunday morning, which WIRED obtained. Weighing the pros and cons, Amodei acknowledged in his note that accepting money from Middle East leaders would likely enrich 'dictators.' 'This is a real downside and I'm not thrilled about it,' he wrote. 'Unfortunately, I think 'No bad person should ever benefit from our success' is a pretty difficult principle to run a business on.' The message comes as AI companies race to secure the massive amounts of capital required to train and develop frontier AI models. In January, OpenAI announced a $500 billion data center project called Stargate with financial backing from MGX, a state-owned Emirati investment firm. Four months later, the company announced it was planning to build a data center in Abu Dhabi, as part of a push to help foreign governments 'build sovereign AI capability in coordination with the US.' 'As an American company at the frontier of AI development, we have always believed the supply chain of frontier AI model development should be on American soil in order to maintain America's lead,' said Anthropic spokesperson Christopher Nulty in a statement. 'As Dario has said before, we believe fundamentally in sharing the benefits of AI and serve the Middle East and regions around the world commercially, in line with our Usage Policy.' In May, President Donald Trump toured the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia as part of a four-day trip focused on economic investments. A cabal of tech leaders, including Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and Nvidia chief Jensen Huang, joined him for a meeting with the crown prince of Saudi Arabia. Anthropic's leadership was notably absent. In his memo, Amodei acknowledged that the decision to pursue investments from authoritarian regimes would lead to accusations of hypocrisy. In an essay titled 'Machines of Loving Grace,' Amodei wrote: 'Democracies need to be able to set the terms by which powerful AI is brought into the world, both to avoid being overpowered by authoritarians and to prevent human rights abuses within authoritarian countries.' In 2024, Anthropic decided not to accept money from Saudi Arabia, citing national security concerns, per CNBC. The news came as FTX, the failed cryptocurrency exchange, went into bankruptcy proceedings, and its nearly 8 percent stake in Anthropic went up for sale. Ultimately, a majority of those shares went to ATIC Third International Investment, a UAE firm. At the time, the stake was worth about $500 million. Now, it appears Anthropic is poised to accept Gulf State money—though the company hasn't said whether it has changed its stance on Saudi Arabia in particular. 'There is a truly giant amount of capital in the Middle East, easily $100B or more,' Amodei wrote in the memo. 'If we want to stay on the frontier, we gain a very large benefit from having access to this capital. Without it, it is substantially harder to stay on the frontier.' By pursuing a 'narrowly scoped, purely financial investment from Gulf countries,' the company hopes to avoid the risks associated with allowing outside investors to gain 'leverage' over the company, the memo says. 'The basis of our opposition to large training clusters in the Middle East, or to shipping H20's to China, is that the 'supply chain' of Al is dangerous to hand to authoritarian governments—since Al is likely to be the most powerful technology in the world, these governments can use it to gain military dominance or to gain leverage over democratic countries,' Amodei wrote in the memo, referring to Nvidia chips. Still, the CEO admitted investors could gain 'soft power' through the promise of future funding. 'The implicit promise of investing in future rounds can create a situation where they have some soft power, making it a bit harder to resist these things in the future. In fact, I actually am worried that getting the largest possible amounts of investment might be difficult without agreeing to some of these other things,' Amodei writes. 'But l think the right response to this is simply to see how much we can get without agreeing to these things (which I think are likely still many billions), and then hold firm if they ask.' In a section titled 'Erosion of Standards,' Amodei notes that the reason Anthropic 'vociferously pushed for not allowing big data centers in the Middle East' was because 'without a central authority blocking them, there's a race to the bottom where companies gain a lot of advantage by getting deeper and deeper in bed with the Middle East.' 'Unfortunately, having failed to prevent that dynamic at the collective level, we're now stuck with it as an individual company, and the median position across the other companies appears to be 'outsourcing our largest 5 GW training runs to UAE/Saudi is fine,'' the CEO said, likely referring to the United States' agreement to build a new AI data center in the UAE powered by 5 gigawatts of electricity. 'That puts us at a significant disadvantage, and we need to look for ways to make up some of that disadvantage while remaining less objectionable. I really wish we weren't in this position, but we are.' In a section titled 'Comms Headaches,' the CEO acknowledged that taking investment from Gulf States would likely lead to public criticism. The 'media / Twitter / the outside world' is 'always looking for hypocrisy, while also being very stupid and therefore having a poor understanding of substantive issues,' Amodei wrote. He added: 'It's perfectly consistent to advocate for a policy of 'No one is allowed to do x,' but then if that policy fails and everyone else does X, to reluctantly do x ourselves.' 'We are also interested in serving the region commercially, which is something I think is actually pure positive as long as we don't build data centers there and as long as we enforce our [acceptable use policy],' he added. 'In fact, it could have important benefits for the world including improving human health, aiding economic development, etc.' He concluded: 'As with many decisions, this one has downsides, but we believe it's the right one overall.'
