Mark Zuckerberg's Costly AI Talent Hunt Sparks Backlash As Million-Dollar Recruits Quit, Secretive 'TBD Lab' Breeds Tension At Meta: Report

Meta Platforms Inc. META faces mounting internal tensions after CEO Mark Zuckerberg‘s artificial intelligence recruitment drive sparked employee departures and compensation disputes.

Elite AI Unit Creates Status Divisions

The company’s secretive TBD Lab operates from a restricted-access area near Zuckerberg’s Menlo Park desk, housing Meta’s most elite AI researchers, reported The Wall Street Journal. The unit’s members remain invisible on internal organization charts, while other employee names appear publicly, creating new status distinctions within the $2 trillion company.

At least 21 recruits joined from OpenAI, with additional hires from Alphabet Inc. GOOGL GOOG, Apple Inc. AAPL and Elon Musk‘s xAI. However, several high-profile departures have already occurred, including AI researcher Rishabh Agarwal, who left for Periodic Labs after declining in-person work requirements, as reported WSJ, citing sources.

Meta did not immediately respond to Benzinga's request for comment.

Million-Dollar Recruits Jump Ship

ChatGPT co-creator Shengjia Zhao initially resigned within a week of joining Meta in June, requiring the company to triple his compensation and grant him chief scientist status to retain him, WSJ reported, citing sources. Former OpenAI researchers Avi Verma and Ethan Knight recently returned to their previous employer.

The departures prompted Meta to implement a hiring freeze last month, requiring Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang‘s approval for exceptions. Wang joined Meta through the company’s $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI.

Existing Employees Demand Raises

Internal tensions escalated as existing employees lobbied for compensation increases amid the influx of million-dollar packages for newcomers. Some infrastructure team members leveraged competing offers from former OpenAI executive Mira Murati‘s startup to secure transfers to TBD Lab and salary bumps.

“If you don’t lay the groundwork culturally for bringing in these stars, you’re going to end up burning a bunch of them out and pissing them off,” said Laszlo Bock, former Google people operations head, according to WSJ.

Restructuring Follows Llama 4 Disappointment

The talent war intensified after Meta’s Llama 4 model received criticism for underwhelming performance compared to Chinese rival DeepSeek. Zuckerberg restructured the AI division for the fourth time in six months, dissolving the AGI Foundations team and creating four specialized units, including TBD Lab.

Meta’s 2025 AI capital expenditures are projected to reach $72 billion, up $30 billion from 2024. The company competes against industry-wide AI infrastructure spending estimated at $250 billion through 2026, with approximately 2,000 researchers globally capable of developing foundational AI models.

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