In a stunning revelation about the fierce battle for artificial intelligence expertise, OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, is reportedly outspending even tech behemoth Meta when it comes to compensating its workforce. According to a recent report, OpenAI's stock-based pay packages are setting a new benchmark in Silicon Valley, making its researchers and engineers among the highest-paid in the industry.
Record-Breaking Compensation Packages
Citing financial data shared with investors, The Wall Street Journal reported that OpenAI is paying its employees an average of $1.5 million each in stock-based compensation. This figure is said to be the highest for any technology startup in recent memory. The company, led by CEO Sam Altman, has a team of approximately 4,000 people.
To put this astronomical number into perspective, the analysis shows that OpenAI's compensation is more than seven times higher than the stock-based pay Google disclosed in 2003, just a year before its landmark initial public offering (IPO). Even more striking, the $1.5 million average is roughly 34 times the average employee compensation at 18 other major tech companies in the year before they went public. These figures have been adjusted for inflation and are presented in 2025 dollars for a fair comparison.
The Intense AI Talent War with Meta
The report highlights a direct competition with Meta, the social media giant founded by Mark Zuckerberg, which has aggressively focused its resources on artificial intelligence. Despite Meta's efforts, OpenAI's compensation strategy appears to be winning the race for top-tier AI researchers and engineers.
In 2025, as demand for AI expertise skyrocketed, Zuckerberg was known to offer massive compensation packages, sometimes reaching nine figures or even billion-dollar deals, to attract leading minds. One notable example was Andrew Tulloch, co-founder of the AI startup Thinking Machines Lab led by Mira Murati. Meta successfully hired around 20 employees from OpenAI itself, often by offering million-dollar one-time bonuses on top of substantial equity packages.
For context, before its own IPO in 2012, Facebook's (now Meta) average compensation figure was only about 6% of what OpenAI is offering today, according to the Journal's data compilation.
Policy Shift to Retain Talent
In a move likely designed to make its offers even more attractive, OpenAI recently informed its staff that it would eliminate a key policy. The company scrapped a rule that required employees to remain with the firm for at least six months before their equity awards began to vest. This change means that employees can now access their stock awards much more quickly, providing immediate financial benefit and reducing the risk associated with joining a pre-IPO company.
This aggressive compensation strategy underscores the critical importance of human capital in the rapidly evolving field of artificial intelligence. As companies like OpenAI and Meta vie for dominance in generative AI and other cutting-edge technologies, their ability to attract and retain the brightest minds with unparalleled financial incentives is becoming a decisive factor in the ongoing tech race.
