Meta's $100M AI Talent War: How Zuckerberg's Superintelligence Gambit Makes My Trading Floor Look Like a Corner Shop in Hanoi

By Robin Wong

My $16 Marina District bánh mì buys 32 in Saigon—but that's trivial next to what Mark Zuckerberg reportedly offered one AI researcher: $100 million over multiple years. These aren't typical offers—they're exceptional packages for exceptional talent, but as a former derivatives trader, I've seen excess across Hong Kong and Singapore markets, and this is Silicon Valley's version of a hostile takeover conducted entirely through WhatsApp DMs.

Watching Zuckerberg's latest AI talent grab from my rent-controlled apartment on Chestnut Street feels like déjà vu, except instead of cocaine-fueled Hong Kong trading floors, we're now witnessing Silicon Valley's version of a hostile takeover—conducted entirely through WhatsApp DMs and signing bonuses that could buy small countries.

When Poaching Becomes Pillaging

Meta's new FAIR (Fundamental AI Research) division sounds like something a Bond villain would name his underwater lair, but the strategy is brutally simple: if you can't beat them, buy their entire research team. According to The Information, Zuckerberg has personally orchestrated the poaching of 8+ OpenAI researchers in Q2 2025 alone—what OpenAI's Chief Scientist Mark Chen described as "someone has broken into our home and stolen something"—which, having had my Hong Kong apartment actually burgled in 2018, I can tell you is probably an understatement.

The numbers read like a fever dream written by someone who confused Monopoly money with real currency. Meta's $60-65 billion capital expenditure planned for 2025—with a massive chunk devoted to AI infrastructure. A $14.3 billion stake in Scale AI. Signing bonuses that, while not quite the $100 million headlines suggest for everyone, still exceed typical AI researcher compensation by 300% according to industry data. My old Hong Kong colleagues used to joke that we threw money around like water, but Zuckerberg is throwing money around like he's trying to solve California's drought by making it rain hundred-dollar bills.

The Economics of Desperation

What fascinates me—beyond the sheer audacity of offering someone enough money to buy a small Pacific island nation to switch jobs—is how this mirrors every bubble I've watched inflate and burst across three continents. The talent war Meta is waging displays all the classic signs of a market losing touch with fundamentals.