Catherine Thorbecke, Columnist

Can China Compete in the AI Talent War?

The contest in Silicon Valley is increasingly becoming a fight for Chinese researchers. This isn’t lost on Beijing.

July 9, 2025 at 7:00 PM UTC

Catherine Thorbecke is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Asia tech. Previously she was a tech reporter at CNN and ABC News.

A battle for AI talent.
Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg

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The competition for AI talent prompted Meta Platforms Inc. to reportedly offer sign-on bonuses of $100 million to lure senior staff from rivals. It feels “as if someone has broken into our home and stolen something,” OpenAI’s chief research officer said of the aggressive poaching in a memo to staff obtained by Wired. The latest victim: Apple Inc., which just lost top executive Ruoming Pang to Meta.