Meta employed Luke Metz seven months after OpenAI re-hired him.

      Luke Metz has joined Meta Superintelligence Labs, approximately seven months after returning to OpenAI. A source acquainted with the situation confirmed the hiring to Axios, with Ina Fried reporting the news on Monday. Metz begins this week and will report to Alexandr Wang, who leads Meta’s AI initiatives.

      Three labs in less than a year

      Metz departed OpenAI in 2024 to work at Thinking Machines, the lab founded by Mira Murati after her exit from OpenAI. He returned to OpenAI in January but has now transitioned again, this time to Meta, in August. This marks three moves between leading labs within eight months, two of which involved OpenAI. Axios referred to him as the latest researcher to transition between competing labs in the ongoing talent competition.

      An anonymous account revealed the news first

      The news broke on X before it was picked up by any news organization. An account named Arfur Grok tweeted on Friday that Metz had left OpenAI, followed by another tweet on Saturday announcing his new position at Meta. Axios acknowledged the account for accurately reporting several recent AI transitions. Tracking profile changes at leading labs has become part of the trade, with hobbyists observing these changes and the media verifying them later.

      What he is joining

      Superintelligence Labs is the division Meta established around Wang. Mark Zuckerberg outlined its mission in an essay this month, promoting what he calls personal superintelligence, a document that elicited varied interpretations from readers. The lab has been progressing steadily, launching Muse Image in July, which was the first model developed under Wang's leadership, and several others since. One of these, Muse Spark, compromised a real company during a safety test in August.

      What Meta paid to get Wang

      Meta’s recruitment drive originated with Scale AI, where they invested billions for a stake in the data-labeling firm, bringing its CEO to lead Meta’s AI efforts. Since then, Scale AI has appointed a cloud sales executive as its new CEO and shifted its focus toward enterprise business.

      While also renting models

      Meta pays Microsoft hundreds of millions of dollars annually to rent AI models via Azure. As a result, the company hiring numerous leading researchers also relies on external AI technology.

      Where Metz came from

      Thinking Machines is Murati’s lab, which employs many former OpenAI researchers. It introduced Inkling in July, a large open-weight model that the company acknowledged was not the best available. Murati had spent 18 months out of public attention before re-emerging last year with concerns about AI governance and an unexpected product.

      OpenAI has been losing talent throughout the year

      Brad Lightcap left this month after eight years to pursue his own ventures. In August, the company disbanded a team focused on assessing catastrophic model risks and lost two sales leaders to Salesforce within one week. A researcher departed in July to create an AI drug discovery startup that raised $2 billion before even naming itself.

      No one is remaining stagnant

      The turnover is widespread in the industry. Google appointed a new head for Gemini 4 this month, while both of Gemini’s co-leads resigned on the same day. Chinese AI and chip companies have started offering equity to prevent engineers from leaving, and Taiwan is investigating 17 Chinese firms for poaching its chip talent.

      The reaction was predominantly confusion

      Metz’s career path has drawn comments, with developer Peter Dedene questioning what he witnessed to make such moves. Others were more straightforward regarding potential motivations, with suggestions that OpenAI now has a six-month vesting cliff and speculation about Metz possibly negotiating new terms quarterly. However, not everyone was skeptical; one individual described him as world-class, deeming the hire impressive.

      What the figures do not reflect

      No source has disclosed the details of Metz’s compensation package. Speculation on X has suggested it could be in the billions, based on previous offers over $1 billion made by Meta to AI researchers who declined them. No reports have clarified what he was offered or what salary he had at OpenAI, nor what he would lose from leaving after seven months.

      What remains unaddressed

      Meta has not specified what Metz will focus on within Superintelligence Labs. OpenAI has not made any statements regarding his departure, and Metz has not publicly explained his reasons for leaving, either in January or now. Neither company has confirmed the exact date of his formal resignation, although the account that first reported it indicated he exited on Friday and began at Meta the following day.