In response to an escalating leadership crisis at OpenAI, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has offered to hire OpenAI researchers ditching the startup at their previous pay and equity levels.
"Salesforce will match any OpenAI researcher who has tendered their resignation full cash & equity OTE (on-target earnings) to immediately join our Salesforce Einstein Trusted AI research team under Silvio Savarese," Benioff posted on X, formerly Twitter.
After the board of OpenAI fired its chief executive Sam Altman last week, all but a handful of the San Francisco startup's nearly 800 employees have now threatened to resign unless Altman is reinstated and the board resigns.
Competition for top AI talent has been cutthroat as almost all the major tech giants in the Bay Area have been seeking to flesh out their AI team and reinvent their organizations around the emerging technology. OpenAI recently was reported to have offered $10 million pay packages to poach AI researchers from Google, according to the Information.
Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) has particularly leaned into trends around generative AI, pivoting the theme of its annual Dreamforce conference to AI and releasing a suite of AI products for Salesforce CRM and Slack.
Benioff is even personally reaching out to OpenAI employees on X like researcher Steven Heidel, who have publicly aired their intentions to resign.
Before Altman was fired by the board, OpenAI was in the midst of a massive share sale, where employees could sell their own accrued shares at a $86 billion valuation. The sale is now in major jeopardy, according to The Information, and OpenAI employees could miss out on a massive exit opportunity.
A deal with Salesforce to match their equity deal could be a tempting offer for employees whose shares now have questionable value, following OpenAI's unprecedented blowup.
