Mark Zuckerberg is writing personally to engineers at Google Deepmind, trying to poach them for Meta

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has reportedly resorted to personally reaching out to talent at Google’s DeepMind, penning personal emails in an effort to lure them to Meta’s AI projects.

This move underscores the intensifying competition for AI talent, with Meta employing various tactics to attract top researchers.

According to sources familiar with the matter speaking to The Information, Zuckerberg’s emails emphasize the significance of AI to Meta and aim to entice DeepMind employees to join Meta’s ranks. The sources, who requested anonymity, revealed that at least one individual has been headhunted through these personalized letters.

In addition to Zuckerberg’s direct outreach, Meta has implemented other aggressive recruitment strategies in the AI space. These include bypassing traditional interviews and extending job offers directly to promising candidates.

Moreover, Meta has reportedly increased pay incentives for its employees who had expressed interest in joining rival AI companies, it order to retain them

The hyper-competitive nature of the AI talent market has prompted extraordinary measures from companies like Meta. With a limited talent pool, tech giants are engaging in fierce recruitment efforts, as highlighted by a December report from Fortune detailing the cutthroat environment at major machine learning conferences.

Reflecting on the intense demand for AI expertise, Aravind Srinivas, CEO of AI company Perplexity, recounted his experience attempting to recruit a senior researcher from Meta.

Srinivas shared on the “Invest Like the Best” podcast that the response he received emphasized the need for substantial resources, such as NVIDIA’s coveted H100 GPUs, underscoring the high stakes in the AI race.

To bolster its AI endeavours, Meta is investing heavily in NVIDIA’s H100 GPUs, with plans to acquire over 340,000 units. This significant investment underscores Meta’s commitment to advancing AI capabilities across its platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

As Meta competes against rivals like Microsoft and its partner OpenAI, the company is sparing no expense in its pursuit of AI talent and resources, signalling a fierce battle for dominance in the AI landscape.