OpenAI offers one-time payouts to retain key AI talent
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced a “special one-time award” for specific technical teams the day before GPT-5’s launch, citing “movement in the market” for AI talent, benefiting approximately one-third of the workforce with varying bonus amounts.
This special one-time award is specifically directed toward researchers and software engineers within several organizational units, including applied engineering, scaling, and safety. Sam Altman’s internal message, shared with employees via the company’s Slack, indicated that this compensation adjustment was under consideration for several weeks due to market dynamics impacting technical teams. Altman stated a continued intention to increase overall compensation as the company progresses. He emphasized the transparency of this new initiative, acknowledging its unprecedented nature for the company, and expressed gratitude for the employees’ contributions to artificial general intelligence (AGI) development.
The bonus amounts allocated to qualifying employees are not uniform and are determined by their individual roles and seniority levels. OpenAI’s most highly sought-after researchers are slated to receive the largest payouts, ranging into the mid-single-digit millions of dollars. These top researchers reportedly already earn multi-million dollar salaries annually. Engineers, conversely, are projected to receive bonuses averaging hundreds of thousands of dollars. The distribution of these bonuses will occur quarterly over a two-year period, providing recipients with the flexibility to choose between receiving the funds in OpenAI stock, cash, or a combination of both. This initiative encompasses roughly 1,000 employees, which constitutes approximately one-third of OpenAI’s total full-time workforce.
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Concurrently with the bonus announcement, OpenAI is preparing to facilitate the cashing out of vested stock for more of its employees. Sam Altman has conveyed privately that he anticipates employees will be able to sell their shares at a significantly higher price than the $274 per share valuation established during OpenAI’s funding round earlier in the year, which valued the company at $300 billion. Recent reports indicate that OpenAI’s valuation could potentially reach $500 billion in the forthcoming tender offer. A spokesperson for OpenAI declined to comment on these developments. This comprehensive payout to a broad segment of its employee base represents a novel approach for OpenAI.
The introduction of these bonuses shows the escalating intensity of the talent competition within the artificial intelligence sector. OpenAI has recently experienced the departure of several key researchers to Meta. Among these transitions, Shengjia Zhao, one of the creators of ChatGPT, was appointed as chief scientist at Meta. Internally, Mark Chen, OpenAI’s chief research officer, has characterized Mark Zuckerberg’s recruitment efforts as akin to a “home invasion.” Sam Altman has conveyed to employees that “missionaries will beat mercenaries” in this competitive environment.