Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei says his employees are refusing Zuckerberg’s $100 million payout—and he’s not even matching salaries to keep them

Before joining the Success desk, she co-authored Fortune’s CHRO Daily , extensively covering the workplace and the future of jobs

Emma has also written for publications including the Observer and The China ject, publishing long-form stories on culture, entertainment, and geo

And it’s not for lack of trying,” Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei recently revealed on the Big nology Podcast. “I’ve talked to plenty of people who got these offers at Anthropic and who just turned them down

Who wouldn’t even talk to Mark Zuckerberg.” Meta’s been on a tear to dominate AI—and if it can’t grow the talent internally, its CEO Zuckerberg has no qualms buying it instead

Some have taken up his envy-inducing offer, including at least seven staffers from OpenAI, but Amodei insisted that most of his employees haven’t taken the bait—and he’s not throwing money at staff to keep them

Why Anthropic’s CEO won’t use cash to convince workers to stay Employers may be tempted to fight fire with fire by raising their AI stars’ salaries or recruiting others in return—but Anthropic thinks it would hurt its company culture. “We are not willing to commise our compensation principles, our principles of fairness, to respond individually to these offers,” Amodei said. “The way things work at Anthropic is there’s a series of levels

One candidate comes in, they get assigned a level, and we don’t negotiate that level, because we think it’s unfair

In actuality, staying true to his compensation practices amid the poaching chaos has been a win for Anthropic’s culture. “I think actually this was a unifying moment for the company where we didn’t give in

We refused to commise our principles, because we had the confidence that people are Anthropic because they truly believe in the mission,” Amodei continued. “The only way you can really be hurt by this is if you allow it to destroy the culture of your company by panicking, by treating people unfairly, in an attempt to defend the company.” Fortune has reached out to Anthropic and Meta for

Being scooped up with a $100 million pay package is a dream for most, but the Anthropic CEO has called out the practice for being fundamentally unfair. “If Mark Zuckerberg throws a dart at a dart board and hits your name, that doesn’t mean that you should be paid 10 times more than the guy next to you who’s just as skilled, who’s just as talented,” Amodei said on the podcast

Plus, Amodei thinks the hiring strategy is flat-out counterductive to what Meta wants to get done

And other AI talent seem to want in on Amodei’s culture; engineers at OpenAI were eight times more ly to leave the company for Anthropic

Having employees who can do revolutionary work is one thing, but having a culture that makes them want to stay is another

By poaching others, Amodei doubts Meta is recruiting the best fits for its mission. “I think that what they are doing is trying to buy something that cannot be bought: and that is alignment with the mission

I think there are selection effects here,” he said. “Are they getting the people who are most enthusiastic, who are most mission aligned, who are most excited?” Other leaders, including OpenAI’s Sam Altman, have echoed Amodei’s criticism

Altman said that while Meta has managed to poach some staffers, “so far none of our best people have decided to take them up on that.” Even though Zuckerberg has snatched some of his AI workers, Altman is doubtful that his competitor will be able to replicate the same success of OpenAI. “I think that there’s a lot of people, and Meta will be a new one, that are saying ‘We’re just going to try to copy OpenAI,’” Altman said on the Uncapped podcast last month. “That basically never works

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