Artificial intelligence (AI) has become one of the most transformative technologies of the 21st century, driving advancements across industries from healthcare and finance to education and entertainment. Companies are investing heavily in AI research and talent to stay ahead in what has become a global race for innovation. In this competitive environment, securing top AI experts has become as critical as the technology itself.
In line with this push, Meta has made headlines by offering a massive $250 million compensation package to 24-year-old AI researcher Matt Deitke. The move reflects the company’s aggressive strategy to attract elite talent in its mission to lead the AI space.
Who is Matt Deitke?
Deitke, who had been pursuing a PhD in computer science at the University of Washington, was first approached with a four-year deal worth about $125 million, according to The New York Times. When he declined, Mark Zuckerberg personally met with him and doubled the proposal to roughly $250 million.
“When computer scientists are paid like professional athletes, we have reached the climax of the ‘Revenge of the Nerds!’” MIT economist David Autor told the New York Post.
Following his departure from academia, Deitke joined the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Seattle, where he played a key role in developing Molmo, a chatbot capable of processing not only text but also images and audio.
Here he is: the man who turned down a $1B offer over 4yrs from Meta. pic.twitter.com/fLqVxZFWFz
— Deedy (@deedydas) August 2, 2025
By late 2023, he had co-founded Vercept, a startup working on autonomous AI agents able to navigate and carry out tasks across the internet. The small team of around 10 people managed to raise $16.5 million in funding from backers, including former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.
Deitke’s work has also been recognized in the academic community, earning him an Outstanding Paper Award at NeurIPS 2022.
Meta’s attempt to bring Deitke onboard is part of a wider strategy to secure top talent in the AI sector. Reports suggest the company has spent over $1 billion to strengthen its AI team. Recent hires include Ruoming Pang, former head of Apple’s AI models team, in a deal reportedly valued at more than $200 million.
The company is also committing $72 billion towards capital expenditures in 2025. Zuckerberg emphasized to investors, “We’re building an elite, talent-dense team. If you’re going to be spending hundreds of billions of dollars on compute and building out multiple gigawatt of clusters, then it really does make sense to compete super hard and do whatever it takes to get that, you know, 50 or 70 or whatever it is, top researchers to build your team. There’s just an absolute premium for the best and most talented people.”
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