OpenAI offers $1.5M bonuses as Meta hoovers up AI talent

OpenAI has announced a $1.5 million bonus for every employee over the next two years, including new hires, according to a social media post by Yuchen Jin, a tech industry observer. The unprecedented retention package appears to be a direct response to Meta’s aggressive talent poaching from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google as tech giants race to build artificial general intelligence.

What you should know: The bonus structure effectively makes every OpenAI employee a millionaire, distributed as approximately $750,000 per year over two years.
• The announcement comes as Meta has been on what industry observers describe as a “poaching spree,” aggressively recruiting talent from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google.
• Even newly hired employees are eligible for the full bonus amount upon joining the company.

The big picture: This move represents an escalation in the AI talent war as companies compete to retain top researchers and engineers working on next-generation AI systems.
• Meta is building what it calls SuperIntelligence Labs, driving its aggressive hiring campaign across the industry.
• The timing suggests OpenAI views talent retention as critical ahead of potential major releases like GPT-5.

What they’re saying: Yuchen Jin captured the significance of the timing on X: “Imagine releasing a big tech like GPT-5, and the night before, getting $1.5 M bonus. That’s about $750,000/year.”

Why this matters: The bonus announcement highlights how valuable AI talent has become as companies recognize that “whoever builds it fastest and best will lead the way in the AI race.”