Whenever Mark Zuckerberg says he’s excited, some people might be tempted to ask, “How can you tell?”
Yes, the Meta Platforms (META) founder and CEO can come off rather … robotic sometimes, but Zuck seemed positively zippy when he told the world about a new addition to the social media giant’s employee roster.
“I’m excited that Chirantan ‘CJ’ Desai will join Meta as Chief Enterprise Platform Officer, reporting directly to me,” Zuckerberg wrote on his social media platform Threads.
“CJ is an experienced enterprise leader with a track record of building full-stack software and delivering results in AI, infrastructure, business applications, and security.”
Desai left his C-suite position at database-software company MongoDB (MDB) “effective immediately,” the company said, after less than 11 months on the job.
“Today we are starting the next major pillar of our business, Meta Enterprise Platform, to help businesses use AI to grow and transform in new ways as well,” Zuckerberg said. “I’m excited about beginning this new chapter for Meta and looking forward to working closely with CJ.”
MongoDB shareholders were excited, too, but not in a good way, as the stock ended way down in the red on Monday.
The announcement is another example of corporate poaching, in which companies target employees — particularly executives and other highly skilled workers — from competitors.
Why is corporate poaching more common in the age of AI?
The practice has become especially prominent in the artificial intelligence sector, where the race to dominate the market has triggered a talent war marked by massive compensation packages and aggressive recruiting.
“I’m very concerned about the massive consolidation that’s going on in AI,” U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, told The Associated Press in 2024.
“The technical lingo is ‘up and down the stack.’ But, in plain English, a few companies control a major portion of the market, and just concentrate — rather than on innovation — trying to buy out everybody else’s talent.”
So-called “acqui-hires,” in which one company acquires another largely to absorb its talent, have been common in the tech industry for decades, said Michael A. Cusumano, a business professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
But what’s happening in AI is somewhat different.
“To acquire only some employees or the majority, but not all, license technology, leave the company functioning but not really competing, that’s a new twist,” Cusumano said, according to The Business Journal.
Zuckerberg went on a high-priced hiring spree last year to beef up Meta’s new AI Superintelligence Labs, including poaching Scale AI co-founder Alexander Wang as part of a $14 billion investment in the startup.
“In today’s cutthroat talent market, executive turnover isn’t always driven by dissatisfaction or retirement — it’s increasingly fueled by deliberate poaching from competitors,” law firm Cochran, Cochran & Yale said.
“Unlike traditional hiring, where candidates come through applications or referrals, poaching efforts are highly targeted,” the firm said. “Executive search firms or internal talent teams actively identify high-value leaders, research their pain points, and deliver tailored pitches designed to resonate.”
Employee poaching costs corporations a lot
The financial cost of losing employees is rising, too. The average cost of employee turnover rose to $45,236 in 2026, up from $36,723 in 2025, according to an Express Employment Professionals-Harris Poll survey.
Roughly 35% of employers expecting higher turnover explicitly blamed a hyper-competitive job market and better pay or benefits offered elsewhere.
Related: MongoDB stock crashes 26% as its CEO jumps ship
Larger organizations expressed the highest expectations for rising turnover, with 64% of companies with 500 or more employees expecting turnover to increase.
“These findings reinforce something leaders have known intuitively for years — strong company culture isn’t just good for people. It’s good for business,” Express Employment International CEO, President, and Chairman Bob Funk Jr. said.
Some high-profile names have been entangled in poaching disputes.
High-profile examples of corporate talent poaching
In September 2025, Elon Musk’s xAI sued OpenAI, alleging that the ChatGPT maker had engaged in a targeted campaign to poach key employees and gain access to trade secrets.
Mike Liberatore, xAI’s former chief financial officer, left the company in July 2025 after only three months on the job to join OpenAI.
In March, Bank of America (BAC) hired four veteran technology bankers to expand its technology investment banking business, Reuters reported. The hires included Goldman Sachs’ co-head of software investment banking, Ward Rowe, and Centerview Partners’ Christopher Kirkham.
In July 2026, Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) sued Amazon (AMZN), calling the tech giant a “digital bull in a China shop” over an alleged “lawless employee shopping spree.”
The lawsuit cited the departure of HBO Max executive Pia Barlow, who joined Amazon as vice president of series marketing.
“Amazon must be stopped,” Warner Bros. Discovery said in the lawsuit, accusing the company of inducing employees to breach their employment agreements.
So, how do companies thwart corporate poachers?
How companies try to prevent others from poaching their talent
One tool employers have traditionally used to limit the impact of employee departures is the noncompete agreement, according to law firm Holland & Knight.
Such agreements generally restrict employees from working for competitors after leaving a company, subject to limits involving factors such as time, geography and the type of work involved.
But noncompete agreements have come under increasing scrutiny, with several states restricting or prohibiting them and federal regulators also taking action in recent years.
Awareness is important, too. Executive search firm Cowen Partners advises that if an employee is showing signs of moving on, “it’s essential to sit down and have a discussion, especially if you want to retain them.”
“While there are various tools you can use to stop workers from leaving, like non-compete agreements, they’re not always successful,” Cowen Partners said. “The best way to keep employees from going is by providing them with an environment they don’t want to leave.”
