There is an intensive war going on in Silicon Valley for AI talent. Tech giants are putting millions of people in wooing top researchers away from rivals. Companies like Meta, Google, Microsoft, Apple, Openai and Ethropic are offering over $ 200 million to secure the best mind to create their most advanced artificial intelligence models – some offer over $ 200 million. However, Wang Jian, the founder of Alibaba Claude in China, believes that paying the highest salary is not the real key to innovation. Instead, he suggests that it is all about the right people who share the same vision.

Speaking about the ongoing talent war and stories emanating from Silicon Valley, where companies are spending hundreds of million dollars to hire new talent, Wang told Bloomberg that he “doesn’t think it is a specific way to do things”.

He said, “The only thing you need to do is the right person, not necessarily an expensive person. Because if it is a true innovation, it basically means that no talent is available to you,” he said.

Wang launched the Alibaba Cloud in 2009 and helped the company develop it into one of the world’s largest clouds and AI platforms. Recalling his early efforts to recruit in Silicon Valley for the new venture, he said that his attention was only to attain talent at that time. However, “After talking to people, (he) felt that we did not have much attraction because talent was very expensive.”

Wang’s comments come at a time when companies are recruiting Silicon Valley to manufacture on artificial intelligence and machine learning. Meta recently made headlines for poaching of Apple’s Foundation Model Lead, wasted Pang, allegedly over $ 200 million with a package. The company has offered to sign a bonus as high as high as high to woo AI engineers from rivals such as openiI.

But Wang argues that the way these companies focus on expensive star Higher, they can distract them from the nutrition of true innovation on the other hand. “What is happening today, with companies, they are focusing a lot on the current success of business and existing technology. We have a tremendous opportunity to see technology that no one knows today. These talents are available to you. So it is really about the vision and where you want to go.”

He said that in the early stages of a new business, the most valuable talent often flies under the radar. “It’s not that they are cheap. It’s about the vision and where you want to go, and if the talent is available and is aligned with your vision,” Wang said. “Whenever everyone knows that these are talents, it is better for you to not get them. What is happening in Silicon Valley is not the winning formula.”