Next week, OpenAI will shut down company-wide for a rare break. This comes after months of intense 80-hour workweeks, according to sources cited by Wired. Employees have been working at a relentless pace as the company races toward building artificial general intelligence (AGI).
Only OpenAI executives will keep working during the pause. Everyone else is being given time to rest and recover. But the break isn’t without risk.
Meta, which has been aggressively recruiting from OpenAI, sees this as a window of opportunity. Chief Research Officer Mark Chen warned in an internal memo, “Meta knows we’re taking this week to recharge and will take advantage of it to try and pressure you to make decisions fast and in isolation.”
So far, Meta has managed to lure away seven OpenAI staffers. That includes key contributors to the company’s reasoning models and foundational work on the o1 model. Among the names that have jumped ship: Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov, Xiaohua Zhai, and Trapit Bansal.
Meta is reportedly offering signing bonuses worth of $100 million. Some former OpenAI employees have pushed back on those numbers, calling them “fake news.” But the competition is clearly heating up.
In response, OpenAI is adjusting its compensation strategy. Leadership is “recalibrating comp” and seeking “creative ways to recognize and reward top talent,” according to Chen.
Despite the pressure, CEO Sam Altman says the company’s core team is staying put. “None of our best people have decided to take them up on that,” he said, pointing to OpenAI’s strong mission and culture as reasons for staff loyalty.
Going forward, the company will shift focus from rapid product releases to achieving AGI — its ultimate goal.
