Feb. 25 (GeokHub) — OpenAI has hired prominent artificial intelligence researcher Ruoming Pang from Meta Platforms, marking another high-profile move in Silicon Valley’s escalating competition for top AI talent.
Pang, who joined Meta roughly seven months ago after previously leading Apple’s AI models team at Apple, had overseen AI infrastructure efforts within Meta’s Superintelligence Labs. The division is responsible for developing the company’s next generation of advanced AI systems.
According to reports, Pang left Meta last week following months of recruitment efforts by OpenAI.
A Strategic Talent Acquisition
The hiring underscores the intensifying rivalry between leading AI firms as they race to build increasingly powerful large language models and autonomous systems.
Pang was previously reported to have joined Meta on a compensation package valued at more than $200 million over several years — highlighting the scale of financial incentives technology companies are deploying to secure elite AI researchers.
While neither Meta nor OpenAI provided immediate public comment, the move signals OpenAI’s continued effort to strengthen its technical leadership and infrastructure capabilities as it competes in a rapidly evolving market.
Silicon Valley’s AI Talent War
The battle for AI supremacy has sparked what analysts describe as a modern-day “talent war,” with companies offering multi-million-dollar pay packages, long-term equity incentives and research autonomy to attract and retain top engineers and scientists.
Meta has been aggressively investing in its Superintelligence Labs initiative, aiming to accelerate development of frontier AI models. Meanwhile, OpenAI continues expanding its research and product portfolio amid growing global demand for advanced AI tools.
Industry experts say senior researchers like Pang play a crucial role not just in model development, but in designing the infrastructure that powers large-scale AI systems — an increasingly strategic component of competitiveness.
