OpenAI to give employees ‘special’ million-dollar bonuses amid AI talent wars

While the exact bonus amounts are not known, it will likely depend on the role and seniority of qualified employees, with the highest million-dollar payouts reportedly going to OpenAI’s prized AI researchers, who already draw salaries worth millions of dollars every year.

The engineers, on the other hand, will reportedly receive bonuses amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars on average, the report said. However, these bonuses are not likely to be paid out at once. Instead, it will be disbursed over the next two years with qualified workers having the option to receive the money in OpenAI stock, cash, or both.

“As we mentioned a few weeks ago, we have been looking at comp for our technical teams given the movement in the market,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was quoted as saying by The Verge. “We very much intend to keep increasing comp as we keep doing better and better as a company. But we wanted to be transparent about this one since it’s a new thing for us,” Altman added.

This is reportedly the first time that OpenAI has offered bonuses to such a large number of employees, about one-third of the company’s full workforce. The move comes against the backdrop of a rapidly intensifying war for AI talent. Several companies have poached OpenAI researchers with lucrative offers, and Meta has led the charge.

Since the one-time special bonus does not apply to all employees, OpenAI risks losing more workers, who may feel overlooked, to other companies.

Mark Chen, OpenAI’s research officer, has previously likened Meta’s aggressive poaching spree to a home invasion. Shengjia Zhao, one of the creators of ChatGPT, was recently named as the chief scientist of Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL).

Besides Meta, Elon Musk’s xAI has also reportedly been making aggressive offers to lure away OpenAI’s top talent. Thinking Machines, an AI rival lab started by ex-OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, also comprises several of OpenAI’s technical staff.

Meanwhile, OpenAI also reportedly plans to allow current and former employees to cash out with millions by selling their vested stock to investors. However, Altman has reportedly said that employees might be able to sell at a much higher share price than the current $274 per share at a higher valuation of $500 billion, according to a report by Bloomberg.