Mark Zuckerberg's poaching expedition

Meta is offering huge pay packages — some as high as $100 million — to build out its "superintelligence" AI team. Now OpenAI is getting skittish given how thoroughly Zuck's raided its team.

Presented by Hey Snackers, The final season of "Squid Game" was released on Friday, and continued the show's perfect track record of prompting Americans to do something generally quite out of character: show interest in another country by Googling this.  A quarter that started with US stocks falling out of bed ended with the S&P 500 booking a double-digit gain amid more signs of progress on agreements that may help prevent trade wars from flaring up again. The benchmark US stock index booked another record close with a 0.5% gain, as did the Nasdaq 100 with a 0.6% advance. The Russell 2000 inched 0.1% higher. AI-CQUIRING TALENT Mark Zuckerberg's raid of OpenAI   Mark Zuckerberg wants a best-in-class AI development wing at Meta that can outrun all the other contenders in the enormously competitive space.  Bad luck for him that he didn't actually bother to build that best-in-class AI development wing at Meta when he would have needed to several years ago. Good luck for him, though, that Meta is very, very rich, so now it's just poaching the best brains from everyone else and seeing what happens.  Meta is offering huge pay packages — some as high as $100 million — to build out its "superintelligence" AI team. Now OpenAI is getting skittish given how thoroughly Zuck's raided its team. In an internal memo to employees, Zuckerberg said the new team will be called "Meta Superintelligence Labs," headed by Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang, who will be assisted by Nat Friedman, the former CEO of GitHub. OpenAI Chief Research Officer Mark Chen said in a memo on Saturday that the ChatGPT maker is actively talking with workers who've received offers from Meta and trying to counter them. "We've been more proactive than ever before, we're recalibrating comp, and we're scoping out creative ways to recognize and reward top talent," he wrote. Zuck's memo reportedly listed 11 new hires, including top researchers from Google, DeepMind, OpenAI, and Anthropic.  THE TAKEAWAY Reports said the company plans to hire more than 50 people for the team. So far, the biggest target of poaching has been OpenAI, which has shed lots of talent to Menlo Park and accounted for a little more than half of the announced names. Our Sankey diagram of the hires Presented by Bitcoin Depot The company bridging the Bitcoin gap 2024 was the year crypto went mainstream. But in 2025, there's a still missing link connecting Bitcoin to the real world. Bitcoin ATMs are the (often overlooked) bridge to mass crypto adoption — and Bitcoin Depot is leading the shift as the world's largest operator. With 8,500+ machines across the U.S., Canada, and Australia, Bitcoin Depot is gaining momentum with the crypto wave. 2024 revenues came in at $573.7M, and Q1 2025 revenue is already up 19% YoY.1 📣Investors: If you're looking for a crypto-focused investment not directly tied to coin prices, Bitcoin Depot is your opportunity. As an access point for everyday users, it historically generates revenue regardless of Bitcoin's price swings.2 And as a listed stock (Nasdaq: BTM), you're investing in a company — not a coin. Get Investor Information Here3 LOSING POWER Tesla delivery numbers are coming and analysts think it'll be a bloodbath Tesla is reporting its second-quarter deliveries tomorrow — and judging from leading indicators and analyst estimates, it's not looking good. Monthly sales have been dropping across Tesla's biggest markets, including the US, China, and Europe, and the carmaker's mostly successful robotaxi launch last week isn't likely to move the needle on vehicle sales, which makes up the lion's share of Tesla's revenue.  The company delivered 444,000 cars in Q2 2024. This year: Bloomberg pegs the analyst consensus at 391,000, 12% lower than last year. FactSet's consensus estimate has dropped month after month and is now 387,000, 13% lower.  JPMorgan's Ryan Brinkman just lowered his estimate from 395,000 to 360,000, 19% below last year. And an often on-the-money analyst who goes by Troy Teslike lowered his estimate from 412,000 to 355,000, which would be 20% lower than last year. No matter how you count it, the numbers point to Tesla suffering its biggest quarterly decline ever. We charted what that looks like here.  THE TAKEAWAY Aside from the dour predictions, the bad news that Tesla and other EV makers may have to say goodbye to that $7,500 EV credit sooner than expected could have a silver lining for Tesla. Two-thirds of premium brand EV owners said that tax credits were a main driver in their decision to purchase an EV, which means Q3 sales may surge as would-be buyers move purchases forward to nab that credit before it expires. That said, CEO Elon Musk is not at all happy with the contents of the so-called "big, beautiful bill." Read more THE BEST THING WE READ TODAY More Americans are out of work longer as employers hold back on both hiring and firing Oof. Jobless claims just hit their highest level since late 2021, as you can see in our chart. America's job market is in a "hire less, fire less" mode — but even that "fire less" might not last, as pressure from ever-looming tariffs builds, consumer spending dips, and retail sales post their sharpest monthly drop in a long time. Read more MOVES Yesterday's Big Daily Movers  Air taxi company Joby surged upward as it begins piloted test flights in Dubai HPE soared after the DOJ cleared its Juniper Networks acquisition Plug Power got a jump from extensions included in the Senate's latest tax bill draft AppLovin climbed after UBS hiked its price target to $540, saying the ad tech firm uses AI for coding more than Google or Meta What else we're Snackin' Strategy nears 600,000 bitcoin as the "Strategy of Asia" also buys more of the coin Home Depot drops $4.3 billion to buy wholesale supplier GMS — here's why JPMorgan and Bernstein both initiated Circle coverage, with stark contrasts in expectations Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has a pretty high standard for when riders should tip It might be time for the chase in US stocks, even as they hit record highs Snack Fact of the Day Greece welcomed a record 40.7 million tourists last year — almost 3x as many as it did in 2006. Tuesday May job openings June Manufacturing PMI Earnings expected from Constellation Brands Advertiser's disclosures: 1 Past performance is not indicative of future performance. Revenue growth is based on data in their recent SEC filings. Please review the Q1 2025 financial results for further details on the Q1 2025 revenues and Q1 2024 revenues Please review the FY 2024 financial results for further details on the FY 2024 revenues.  2 From Q2 2020 to Q4 2024, this revenue is documented in the transaction volume compared to price changes in Bitcoin in Q4 2024 Investor Presentation slide 21 (link). Past performance is not indicative of future results. 3 Stock markets are volatile and can fluctuate significantly in response to company, industry, political, regulatory, market, or economic developments. Investing in stock involves risks, including the loss of principal. 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