While Meta poaches talent from Apple, OpenAI and Google, AI startup Anthropic is refusing to play the game by matching competing offers.

Anthropic’s CEO, Dario Amodei, shared his perspective on a recent episode of the “Big Technology Podcast.” Amodei told listeners he had sent a Slack message to everyone at Anthropic, stating that the company wouldn’t alter its salary structure or violate its fairness principles in response to individual employees getting external job offers.

Amodei regarded Meta’s recruitment attempts as a moment that brought the Anthropic team closer, choosing not to match offers as doing so could lead to potential inequities among staff members.

During the podcast, Amodei admitted that Meta’s compensation packages led to fewer Anthropic employees leaving compared to other firms, although this wasn’t due to lack of effort from Meta. Some employees at Anthropic even refused to engage with Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, as per Amodei.

Meta has reportedly promised over $200 million to an AI researcher from Apple’s superintelligence team. Despite Meta’s aggressive recruitment, they did succeed in hiring Joel Pobar, an Anthropic software engineer, according to a June 30 memo.

“If you’re suddenly paid ten times more because Mark Zuckerberg takes an interest in you, it doesn’t seem fair compared to someone equally capable sitting next to you,” expressed Amodei during the podcast.

^{Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. Photo by Halil Sagirkaya/Anadolu via Getty Images}

Anthropic uses a tiered compensation system. Amodei clarified that when new employees join Anthropic, they are placed in specific levels, which then determine their pay.

“We don’t negotiate that level because we think it’s unfair,” Amodei said. “We want to have a systematic way.”

Amodei said that Anthropic’s mission of safely creating reliable, cutting-edge AI systems inspired many employees to stay, and asserted that Zuckerberg was “trying to buy something that can’t be bought,” which is alignment with a company’s mission.

Zuckerberg, meanwhile, recently outlined his mission with his superintelligence team, a group working on creating AI that surpasses human intelligence. In a blog post on Meta’s website, published on Wednesday, Zuckerberg said that Meta’s goal was to bring superintelligence to every individual and allow people to reap the creative, economic and personal benefits of the technology.

He contrasted the effort with the intentions of “others in the industry” who want to use AI to automate the workforce first before giving it to individuals. Meta’s mission is to empower individuals with AI, Zuckerberg wrote.

Since its start in 2021, Anthropic has raised close to $20 billion from companies like Google and Amazon. According to a Bloomberg report from earlier this week, the startup is nearing a deal to raise funds at a $170 billion valuation.

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