Top AI researchers and engineers who quit high paying jobs for new ventures
Among the most striking departures is that of Rishabh Agarwal, who was hired by Meta on a reportedly million-dollar salary to work in its superintelligence team.
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Meta, one of the frontrunners in the global artificial intelligence race alongside Google and OpenAI, is facing a spate of high-profile resignations from its AI division. The departures come after the company spent months hiring aggressively to strengthen its research and superintelligence teams, highlighting the fierce competition for top-tier AI talent.
Several key figures have now left Meta, many of them Indian-origin technologists with impressive global credentials. Their exits underscore both the volatility of the AI sector and the allure of rival opportunities.
Rishabh Agarwal
Among the most striking departures is that of Rishabh Agarwal, who was hired by Meta on a reportedly million-dollar salary to work in its superintelligence team. Agarwal confirmed his resignation on X, stating he wanted to take a “different kind of risk” in his career. The move, he said, reflected Mark Zuckerberg’s oft-quoted advice: “In a world that's changing so fast, the biggest risk you can take is not taking any risk.”
Agarwal previously worked at Google DeepMind and interned at Tower Research Capital, Saavn and Waymo. An IIT Bombay graduate in Computer Science, he ranked 33rd nationwide in the prestigious JEE examination.
Chaya Nayak
Another major name to exit Meta is Chaya Nayak, who has joined rival OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT. Nayak, also of Indian origin, spent nearly a decade at Meta, where she led the Facebook Open Research and Transparency team, working on data cleaning, differential privacy and data clean rooms. More recently, she had been closely involved in Meta’s generative AI efforts, including its large language model LLaMA.
Avi Verma
Avi Verma, another senior researcher, has also quit. Having previously worked at OpenAI before joining Meta under a lucrative offer from Zuckerberg, Verma is now returning to OpenAI to rejoin Sam Altman’s team. Verma holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Stanford University and has also worked at Tesla, the electric vehicle company founded by Elon Musk.
Ethan Knight
Ethan Knight, formerly a staff machine learning scientist at Tesla’s Autopilot division, has also resigned. According to Wired, Knight had earlier worked at OpenAI as a research intern in the AI safety team. He holds a degree in Mathematical and Computational Science from Stanford University.
Rahul Pandey
Indian-origin technologist Rahul Pandey also left Meta after nearly five years at the company, despite earning an annual salary of around ₹6.6 crore. Pandey has since turned entrepreneur, revealing to CNBC in 2023 that personal challenges and shifting priorities prompted his decision to walk away from the social media giant.
