The AI Talent Wars Visual Map

Last week, I provided you with a comprehensive overview of the ongoing talent war. Yet things are moving faster, with Meta successfully poaching talent from Apple, and OpenAI also managing to poach from Tesla, X, and others.

Thus, this deserves another coverage today.

However, I’m shooting out another weekly update on it, as things are intensifying quite quickly, and understanding the patterns and moves that are happening as we speak might be critical to understanding where the industry is going next.

In the summer of 2025, the artificial intelligence industry is experiencing its most dramatic talent realignment since the founding of OpenAI. What began as isolated departures has escalated into an all-out war for the minds that will shape humanity's AI future.

The numbers tell a stark story: compensation packages reaching $300 million over four years, entire teams defecting overnight, and billion-dollar startups emerging from the exodus of disillusioned executives.

But beneath the eye-watering salary figures lies a more profound transformation.

The talent movements of 2025 aren't just about money—they're a referendum on competing visions for artificial general intelligence, a battle between commercial ambition and research idealism, and a preview of which companies will dominate the AI-powered future.