Meta paid an insane $200 million signing bonus to secure Apple's head of foundation AI models

Meta wants to be one of the major leaders in AI and is spending big to get there, recently acquiring Apple's head of foundation AI models and paying him a massive $200 million signing bonus.

2

Apple's now former AI models executive, Ruoming Pang, left Apple for Meta with Bloomberg reporting the social media giant paid Pang a wallet-busting $200 million signing bonus. The $200M compensation package from Meta is for Pang to work in its new superintelligence labs, with a base salary, signing bonus, and Meta shares. The stocks issued to Pang are the biggest part of his package, but we don't have a percentage breakdown to see where that $200 million went.

Meta's huge $200 million deal to secure Apple's former AI boss is expected to compensate for his potential lost income, including the new signing bonus and annual income, which aims to offset any lost opportunities if he resigns from Meta and misses out on important stock bonuses

Apple CEO Tim Cook has an annual salary of $74.6 million, and even the multi-trillion-dollar company couldn't match Meta's eye-watering signing bonus. 9to5Mac reports that Pang won't see the entire $200 million package if he doesn't stay at Meta for a long period of time, and if Meta stock continues to perform well.

Zuckerberg has been making AI a top priority for Meta, where it isn't just entering the AI race, but rather, keeping up with AI competitors like OpenAI and Google. Zuckerberg has personally been heavily involved in recruiting for Meta's AI division, hosting potential new AI hires at his homes in Silicon Valley and Lake Tahoe, often reaching out personally to potential recruits