OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman has accused Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta of trying to poach his developers with the promise of $100mn sign-on bonuses and even higher compensation, as the social media platform races to catch up in the AI battle.

Altman said Meta, which has a market capitalisation of $1.8tn, had begun to make the “giant offers” to employees on his team after falling behind on their current AI push. “I’ve heard that Meta thinks of us as their biggest competitor,” Altman said on the Uncapped podcast, which is hosted by his brother.

“I think it is rational for them to keep trying. Their current AI efforts haven’t worked as well as they’ve hoped and I respect [them] continuing to be aggressive.” He added that none of his “best people” had taken Zuckerberg up on his offers.