I mean maybe the super smart person will work at GOOG/META/Netflix to do some absolutely ground breaking work stuffing ads and slop pixels into as many ocular nerves as possible. However, I could see a smart person taking an "underpaid" (SpaceX SWE: ~$200-400k pre-IPO) to do the following:

Neuralink: to see the impact of increased independence and autonomy of a paraplegic one day after the operation

SpaceX: to quite literally approach the final frontier. Currently launches 80-90% of all orbital mass. Starlink is saving lives constantly.

Tesla: to kickstart the EV revolution and reduce fossil fuel dependence

Boring Company: to radically decrease tunneling costs applicable to all sorts of critical urban problems from transportation to utilities etc