Americas Unequal Bets: AI Engineer’s $100M Meta Offer Surpasses Flutterwave’s Annual Revenue

Unequal Bets made headlines as Meta reportedly offered OpenAI engineers sign-on deals worth up to $100 million, according to MSN. For context, that figure exceeds African fintech unicorn Flutterwave’s total reported revenue for 2024—earned across all operations—to secure one AI expert.

Key Points

• Meta reportedly offers stock-based packages worth $100 million to AI engineers.
• OpenAI has lost multiple staff members to rivals amid growing competition in the AI industry.
• Flutterwave’s 2024 revenue was approximately $95 million, by contrast.
• One engineer’s pay now outpaces the total earnings of a major African startup.

Unequal Bets speaks to a world where one salary now equals a continent’s startup success. The AI revolution truly feels out of this world—and so do the wages. As brains become billion-dollar bets, we’re left watching the gap between builders and bidders grow wider. The question isn’t just “who’s worth it,” but “who decides what’s worth it?”

If unequal bets value one engineer above a unicorn, are we funding innovation, or something more challenging to name?

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Sources:

MSN, Flutterwave