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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally met Matt Deitke after his initial rejection to convince him to join the company’s Superintelligence Lab. The offer, reportedly spread over four years, equals nearly ₹545 crore per year—more than what most professional athletes or Fortune 500 CEOs earn.

We are officially living in the world of tech nerds! In a staggering move that highlights the escalating talent war in artificial intelligence, Meta has offered a ₹2,182 crore (approx. $250 million) compensation package to 24-year-old AI researcher Matt Deitke, after he turned down an earlier offer of ₹1,091 crores ($125 million).

Sources reveal to The New York Times that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally met Deitke after his initial rejection to convince him to join the company’s Superintelligence Lab. The offer, reportedly spread over four years, equals nearly ₹545 crore per year—more than what most professional athletes or Fortune 500 CEOs earn.

Who is Matt Detike?

Matt Deitke, a 24-year-old AI researcher from the United States, began his academic journey at the University of Washington, where he pursued a PhD in Computer Science. Passionate about building intelligent systems that perceive and reason like humans, he focused his research on multimodal and embodied AI. During his time as a student, he worked closely with the Allen Institute for AI (AI2), where he co-led projects such as Molmo, a powerful chatbot that can understand and respond using text, images, and audio. His academic contributions earned global recognition, including an Outstanding Paper Award at NeurIPS 2022 and a Best Paper Honorable Mention at CVPR 2025.

Deitke’s professional career took a bold turn when he dropped out of his PhD program to co-found Vercept, a startup focused on building autonomous AI agents that operate without constant human prompting. His work at Vercept attracted attention from top investors like Eric Schmidt, and the company raised over $16 million in funding. His rare combination of deep technical skill and entrepreneurial instinct made him a hot commodity in the AI talent race.

His journey reflects the new era where AI researchers are not just academics—they’re tech’s newest rockstars. Meta’s humongous offer underscores Silicon Valley’s aggressive race to acquire top-tier talent in AI as tech giants race to build next-gen models and artificial general intelligence (AGI) systems. The move also draws comparisons with NBA-style recruitment tactics, as companies increasingly treat AI researchers like elite athletes.

Meta has reportedly been poaching several OpenAI employees as well with bizarre compensations. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that Zuckerberg was offering close to $100 million (approximately Rs. 835 crore) signing bonuses to get them on board.  

Indian origin AI researcher Trapit Bansal also recently confirmed that he has joined Meta. His appointment has sparked speculations that Bansal is offered close to Rs. 800 crore in compensation.