Meta Platforms offered more than US$1 billion—some accounts put the figure at about US$1.5 billion over six years—to entice veteran engineer Andrew Tulloch to return to the company, according to reports in the Wall Street Journal and Wired. Tulloch, who left Meta after 11 years to co-found Mira Murati’s generative-AI start-up Thinking Machines, rejected the package, people familiar with the talks said. Tulloch is said to own roughly 3.75% of Thinking Machines, a stake that could be valued at about US$3 billion if the 50-person firm completes a forthcoming Series B round at the valuation insiders expect. That future upside, combined with the opportunity to work alongside former OpenAI chief technology officer Murati, reportedly outweighed Meta’s stock-heavy offer. The rebuff highlights the intensifying competition for top artificial-intelligence researchers. Wired reported that Meta has contacted around 100 current or former OpenAI staff this year and managed to secure only about 10 hires despite offering nine-figure pay packages. The episode underlines both the soaring price of AI talent and the difficulty even deep-pocketed tech giants face in recruiting established innovators.