The competition for AI talent has reached levels of intensity that would seem absurd if they weren't real. We're talking about a world where one of the planet's richest CEOs personally cooks soup and delivers it to people's homes, hoping they'll join his company.

That's according to Mark Chen, chief research officer at OpenAI, who shared some wild details about the recruiting wars between top AI labs during an appearance on the Core Memory podcast this week. And yes, the soup story is real.

The Recruiting Battle Nobody Sees

Chen pushed back against the narrative that's been circulating in media reports about a one-way exodus of talent from OpenAI to Meta Platforms Inc. (META). Sure, Meta has been aggressive, but Chen says most of their recruiting efforts at OpenAI have flopped.

"I think that a lot has been made in the media of 'oh, there's this unidirectional flow of talent over to Meta,' but the way that I've seen it is [that] Meta they've gone after a lot of people quite unsuccessfully," Chen explained.

He got specific about his own team. Before Meta managed to hire anyone from OpenAI, Chen said the company went after about half of his direct reports. All of them declined.

That's not to say Meta hasn't landed some hires. With a roughly $10 billion annual budget for AI talent, some people were bound to say yes. But Chen feels pretty good about how OpenAI has retained its top researchers, despite the onslaught.

When Your CEO Shows Up With Soup

Here's where things get truly bizarre. Chen revealed that Mark Zuckerberg didn't just sign off on generous compensation packages — he personally cooked soup and hand-delivered it to researchers he was trying to poach from OpenAI.

"Zuck actually went and hand-delivered soup to people that he was trying to recruit from us," Chen said, emphasizing that the Meta CEO made it himself. "It was shocking to me at the time, but over time I've updated toward these things can be effective in their own way."

The tactic apparently made enough of an impression that Chen borrowed it. He later admitted, with a laugh, that he's also delivered soup to people OpenAI was recruiting from Meta. So now we've got competing tech executives showing up at each other's employees' doors with homemade soup. What a time to be alive.

The Numbers Behind Meta's Hiring Blitz

Last August, reports emerged that Meta had paused hiring in its AI division after months of throwing astronomical sums at top talent. The company brought on more than 50 researchers and engineers from competitors including OpenAI, Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) (GOOG), and Apple Inc. (AAPL).

The compensation packages were eye-watering, reportedly reaching as high as $100 million for individual hires. Zuckerberg took a hands-on approach throughout, personally reaching out to candidates beyond just the soup deliveries.

One offer that didn't pan out: Zuckerberg reportedly offered $1.5 billion to Andrew Tulloch, co-founder of Thinking Machines Lab. Tulloch turned it down. Yes, someone said no to one and a half billion dollars.

Meta did score at least one massive win, though. The company brought on Alexandr Wang, co-founder of Scale AI, as its chief AI officer through a $14 billion equity deal.

What It All Means

The soup anecdote is entertaining, sure, but it reveals something deeper about where we are in the AI race. These companies aren't just competing on salary anymore — they're trying every possible angle to convince the small pool of elite researchers to join their side. When you're Mark Zuckerberg and you're making soup for potential hires, it suggests the talent pool really is that shallow and the stakes really are that high.

For what it's worth, Meta shares are up nearly 8% year to date, though the stock has been trending lower across short, medium, and long-term timeframes according to recent market analysis.

Meanwhile, somewhere in Silicon Valley, someone's probably cooking soup right now.