OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta Hire 22 Professors From Top US Schools

The interesting thing about the latest wave of AI hires is not the size of the pay packages, it is where the people are coming from. [The Atlantic](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2026/07/ai-companies-hiring-academics/688002/) reports that at least 22 professors from schools including Stanford, Berkeley, Harvard, MIT and Carnegie Mellon have left or taken leave in 2026 to join OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta or Google DeepMind. Anthropic recently picked up a Stanford economist and a philosopher from UT Austin, and OpenAI now employs top mathematicians and physicists. What makes this different from a normal round of Silicon Valley recruiting is who is being recruited. These are not just senior engineers, they are the people who choose the research questions, teach the next cohort of scientists, and provide the outside scrutiny of systems that increasingly show up in banks, hospitals and government. https://aiweekly.co/alerts/openai-anthropic-meta-hire-22-professors-from-top-us-schools