Andrew Tulloch leaves Meta after $1.5 billion offer

The reported offer to Tulloch sits at the extreme end of what AI labs have been willing to pay. Even setting aside the disputed $1.5 billion figure, the article notes that a package anywhere near that size would have made him the highest paid employee in the history of the tech industry, which shows how far compensation has stretched at the top of the field.

What makes the move notable is that it runs against the recruiting effort described in the article. Tulloch was reportedly recruited personally by Mark Zuckberg, and talented researchers now dart between leading labs including Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, SpaceXAI and Meta. His departure is a reminder that even a personal pitch from a chief executive is not necessarily enough to keep a top researcher in place.

The next step for Tulloch is left open. He could take a high salary at another lab, or raise billions from venture capitalists for a startup of his own, following the path the article attributes to OpenAI's Ilya Sutskever and Google's Jeff Dean. The larger test, as the article frames it, is whether the high-priced revolving door at AI companies continues until the talent field adjusts and creates more supply.