Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta (formerly Facebook), recently met with a 24-year-old AI expert named Matt Deitke, who had turned down a huge job offer from the company — $125 million. But after the meeting with Zuckerberg, Deitke agreed to join Meta, thanks to a much bigger deal worth up to $250 million in salary and stock.
Why Was Deitke So Valuable?
Matt Deitke is a rising star in the AI world. He previously led the development of Molmo, an advanced AI chatbot that can understand images, sound, and text — something Meta is heavily interested in. His AI research has earned him major awards, like the Outstanding Paper Award at a top conference, NeurIPS 2022.
In November, Deitke started his own company called Vercept, which builds smart AI agents that can perform online tasks on their own. The startup raised $16.5 million in funding, including money from former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.
Meta is spending over $1 billion to build a dream team of AI researchers for its Superintelligence Labs, a project focused on creating powerful AI systems. The company has been hiring top talent from competitors like OpenAI, Apple, Google, and Anthropic.
Deitke first said no to Meta’s offer because he wanted to keep working on his startup. But after a one-on-one meeting with Zuckerberg, Meta came back with an even bigger deal — reportedly offering $100 million in the first year alone.
Read more: Apple Loses Top AI Talent as Meta Ramps Up Superintelligence Project
He asked his peers for advice, and many told him to take the deal — which he eventually did.
Meta also recently hired Ruoming Pang, who used to lead Apple’s AI models team. His pay package reportedly went over $200 million.
