Meta’s billion-dollar AI hunt puts India in the spotlight

Mark Zuckerberg’s aggressive push to hire top AI talent is expected to drive up global salaries, but India’s cost advantage makes it an attractive destination for AI jobs—particularly in engineering and mid-level roles.

Indian AI professionals are significantly more affordable compared to their U.S. counterparts. However, to move up the value chain, experts stress the need to strengthen India’s high-end AI research capabilities.

The AI market is witnessing a surge in competition, with global tech giants fiercely competing to attract top talent in their quest to build the next wave of super intelligent technologies.

Mark Zuckerberg is taking a hands-on role in leading Meta’s aggressive push to recruit top AI talent, targeting key individuals from AI-focused startups like Safe Superintelligence (SSI), founded by OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever. As part of this effort, Meta has hired Wang and several employees from Scale AI, and is expected to bring SSI co-founder and CEO Daniel Gross into its newly formed AI division. Former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman will join Wang in co-leading Meta’s Superintelligence Labs, which will focus on applied research and AI product development. Sources say Zuckerberg has already secured 11 hires from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google.

As Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg reportedly offers US$ 100 million compensation packages to secure top-tier AI talent, industry experts anticipate a ripple effect across major tech companies, potentially pushing up the global cost of AI expertise. 

Amidst this surge in demand and salaries, India retains a significant edge due to its large, skilled, and cost-effective talent pool, making it an increasingly attractive destination for AI-related roles.

According to AMS data, Indian AI professionals cost just 15–25% of what similar roles demand in global tech hubs like the US, particularly at the senior and research levels. Teamlease Digital highlights that salaries in the US and Europe can be nearly five times higher than in India for equivalent skill sets. Even for mid-level roles such as machine learning engineers and data scientists with some experience, the pay gap is two to three times. This stark cost difference is prompting companies to shift more AI jobs to India.

An industry expert noted that India is especially well positioned to handle engineering, implementation, and mid-tier research roles, thanks to its favourable cost-quality ratio. The country’s strength lies in scaled AI development, ML operations, and data engineering. While top researchers in the US can earn between US$500,000 and US$1 million or more, their Indian counterparts typically earn around ₹60–80 lakh (US$ 72.3K- US$ 96.4K; approximate exchange rate of ₹83 = $1) annually, according to Adecco.

Meta’s high-end offers are resetting global benchmarks, but India’s dual advantage of affordability and a growing talent base makes it an ideal location for scaling AI teams. The country’s AI workforce is expanding steadily, especially in applied AI and systems engineering. However, experts caution that India still trails in high-end AI research and development—an area where deep expertise, not cost, dictates value.

Currently, most AI-related roles being offshored to India involve data modeling, annotation, and AI/ML system integration. To climb higher up the value chain and move into core innovation roles, experts stress the need for strategic investment in research, education, and continuous skill development. A robust upskilling ecosystem will be crucial to prepare Indian professionals for next-generation AI challenges.

While global firms may prioritize cost efficiency for implementation roles, they are willing to pay top dollar for ground breaking innovation—wherever the talent resides. This means the world’s most elite AI researchers will likely remain concentrated in advanced ecosystems like the US, at least until India’s start-up and research infrastructure matures further.

Nevertheless, signs of progress are already visible. Indian-origin researchers are leading global AI labs and contributing to cutting-edge advancements. With sustained investment through government initiatives such as the IndiaAI Mission, and a rapidly evolving start-up ecosystem, India is gearing up to narrow the gap and emerge as a serious contender in the global AI landscape. 

Conclusion

India is at a critical juncture in the global AI race. Though it continues to attract AI implementation and engineering roles due to its cost efficiency and skilled workforce, true leadership will depend on strengthening advanced research capabilities. By prioritizing investment in education, research infrastructure, and initiatives like the IndiaAI Mission, the country has the potential to evolve from a support hub into a global driver of AI innovation and frontier technologies.