Tech giants like Meta (led by Mark Zuckerberg) and other top players are quietly competing to recruit a tiny pool of elite AI researchers—so valuable that some are being offered pay packages worth up to $100 million. There’s even a secret industry "list" of these in-demand experts, highlighting just how fierce the battle for AI talent has become.

Editor’s Note: AI is reshaping everything, and the people who truly understand it are like gold dust. This story pulls back the curtain on how desperate big tech is to lock down the brains behind the next breakthroughs—even if it means paying them like superstar athletes. For the rest of us, it’s a sign of just how much power (and money) is concentrated in the hands of a few geniuses driving the future.