Why Meta Is Offering Over $200M to Top AI Engineers – Inside the Superintelligence Team’s Pay Packages

Meta Platforms has offered its new “Superintelligence” team members exceptionally high compensation, including more than $200 million for a former Apple engineer.

According to industry insiders, Meta hired the former head of Apple’s AI model team, Pang Ruoming, with a multi‑year, multi‑hundred‑million‑dollar package that dwarfs the pay of all Apple executives except CEO Tim Cook.

The team’s hiring strategy mirrors other major hires: former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman, AI startup founder Daniel Gross, and Scale AI co‑founder Alexandr Wang, who joins as chief AI officer with a 49% equity stake valued at about $14.3 billion.

Meta declined to comment, and Apple has not responded.

From a pure numbers perspective, the Superintelligence team’s pay ranks among the highest in any company, even surpassing CEOs of major banks, though much of it is performance‑based and vests over a loyalty period, meaning employees could lose portions if they leave early or the stock underperforms.

The compensation package consists of base salary, signing bonuses, and Meta stock, with the stock component being the most significant. Large cash salaries and bonuses are typical, and signing bonuses may increase if new hires forgo substantial equity in startups.

Meta often ties stock vesting to specific metrics, such as a minimum percentage increase in Meta’s share price over certain years, and contracts may extend beyond the usual four‑year vesting schedule.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently discussed the AI talent war with Meta on a podcast, noting that Meta offers up to $100 million in signing bonuses and higher overall packages, yet OpenAI retains talent due to its culture and reputation.

Despite Altman’s comments, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has already hired over ten former OpenAI researchers and top engineers from Anthropic, Google, and other startups.

Altman said he has not spoken with Zuckerberg since Meta’s co‑founder began recruiting OpenAI talent, and he expects to meet Zuckerberg at the upcoming Allen & Co. conference in Sun Valley, Idaho.