OpenAI has reportedly offered $1.5 million bonuses for every employee over two years, including new hires, as the artificial intelligence giant battles Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) and other tech titans in a talent war.
Tech Executive Reveals Bonus Strategy
Yuchen Jin, Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Hyperbolic and former OctoAI executive, disclosed the compensation move on X Thursday. “My OpenAI friends are so hyped rn – not because it’s the night before GPT-5, but because Sam just announced $1.5M bonus for every employee over 2 years,” Jin wrote.
Jin, whose previous company OctoAI was acquired by Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA), added that “78% of Nvidia employees are millionaires. At OpenAI, it’s 100%.”
OpenAI did not immediately respond to Benzinga's request for comment.
Meta’s Aggressive Recruitment Drives Market Response
The bonus announcement comes as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg‘s “mafioso” style poaching tactics have intensified Silicon Valley’s AI talent competition. Meta has reportedly offered compensation packages reaching $20 million annually to lure researchers from OpenAI, Anthropic and Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG).
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman previously welcomed Meta’s challenge with a “bring it on” response during a podcast interview. Meta’s newly formed Superintelligence Labs has successfully recruited seven OpenAI researchers and Apple Inc.‘s (NASDAQ:AAPL) former Foundation Models head, Ruoming Pang.
OpenAI’s Valuation Surge Supports Retention Strategy
The retention bonuses coincide with OpenAI’s pursuit of a secondary stock sale that could value the company at $500 billion, representing a 67% jump from its current $300 billion valuation. The company recently raised $8.3 billion as part of a $40 billion funding round led by SoftBank Group Corp. (OTC:SFTBY).
OpenAI’s revenue has surged to $13 billion annually from $10 billion in June, with projections exceeding $20 billion by year-end. The company now serves 700 million weekly ChatGPT users and has grown paid business subscribers to five million.
Broader AI Infrastructure Investment Wave
The talent war occurs amid a $250 billion AI infrastructure spending surge through 2025-26. Meta plans to spend nearly $100 billion by 2026, while Alphabet raised its 2025 capital expenditure target to $85 billion. Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) is on track to exceed $100 billion in annual AI spending.
With only approximately 2,000 researchers globally capable of building foundational AI models, compensation battles are reshaping Silicon Valley’s competitive landscape as companies race toward artificial general intelligence.
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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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