At 24, Matt Deitke landed a $250M AI deal with Meta

In a world where most people are worried AI will take away their jobs, meet Matt Deitke, a 24-year-old AI researcher whose talent is so rare that Meta offered him a $125 million package. He turned it down. But instead of walking away, Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg personally stepped in, doubling the offer to a jaw-dropping $250 million with $100 million front-loaded in the first year. This time, Deitke accepted the offer.

So, what’s the message here? While AI might automate many jobs, it’s also creating unprecedented opportunities. And if you still think AI is only the future, you’re already behind. AI is the present. The real race has begun, and it’s moving faster than ever.

Why Meta needed him

To lead the AI arms race, Meta is aggressively recruiting top talent from across the industry from OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft, and cutting-edge startups. But among all those experts, Deitke stood out.

A former PhD candidate at the University of Washington, Deitke dropped out of academia to pursue applied AI at the Allen Institute for AI in Seattle. There, he led the development of Molmo, a groundbreaking multimodal chatbot that could process images, audio, and text. His work earned the Outstanding Paper Award at NeurIPS 2022, one of the most prestigious honours in AI. Meta had been pursuing Deitke since 2023. But he had other plans.

In late 2023, Deitke co-founded Vercept, a bold AI startup focused on building autonomous agents. These weren’t just chatbots waiting for human input. Vercept’s AI could think, act, explore, and adapt to complex digital environments.

The idea was revolutionary. And it worked. With just 10 employees, Vercept quickly gained attention, securing $16.5 million in early funding from backers including Eric Schmidt, former Google CEO.

Then came Meta’s $125 million offer in early 2024 and Deitke said no.

Zuckerberg gets personal

Not one to back down, Zuckerberg personally met with Deitke, sharing Meta’s long-term AI vision and offering a new, revised package: $250 million over four years, with a massive upfront payout.

This time, Deitke said yes. And with that, he became one of the most generously recruited AI minds in history.

Deitke’s story is more than just big numbers and billionaire meetings. It’s a wake-up call. AI is reshaping the job market faster than ever before and those who understand it will lead, not just survive.

So if you’re still sitting on the sidelines, waiting to “catch up later”, it may already be too late. It’s time to reskill, upskill, and realise that AI isn’t the future. It’s now.