OpenAI offers millions in bonuses to 1,000 staff amid AI talent race

OpenAI bonus offer: OpenAI offers massive retention bonuses as GPT-5 Launches and AI talent war escalates

OpenAI is awarding substantial bonuses to approximately 1,000 employees, which makes up about one-third of its workforce, as part of its effort to retain top technical talent amid growing competitive pressure in the artificial intelligence sector, according to a report by The Information.

 

The bonuses, which range from the low hundreds of thousands to several million dollars, are being offered to staff in technical research and engineering roles.

 

Their value will be based on each employee’s performance, seniority, and role. Employees will have the option to receive the payouts in either cash or equity, with the awards vesting quarterly over two years.

 

 

OpenAI seeks $500 billion valuation

The move comes as OpenAI rolls out GPT-5, its most advanced large language model to date, and prepares for a secondary share sale that would value the company at $500 billion—a significant increase from its previous $300 billion valuation.

 

The transaction would allow current and former employees to sell shares, unlocking value amid OpenAI’s rapid growth and strengthening retention.

 

AI talent poaching and countermeasures

In recent weeks, OpenAI has seen several researchers leave for Meta Platforms, which has launched a hiring spree to support its new “superintelligence” division. In response, OpenAI Chief Research Officer Mark Chen circulated an internal memo promising aggressive countermeasures to address the talent drain.

 

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has been outspoken about the competition. Speaking on Uncapped, a podcast hosted by his brother Jack Altman, he described Meta’s tactics as “crazy”, citing signing bonus offers of up to $100 million—and in some cases, even more in total compensation. “They started making giant offers to a lot of people on our team,” Altman said. “So far, none of our best people have decided to take them up on that.”

 

 

Meta’s investment in AI and talent hunt

Meta’s push into advanced AI has been backed by a $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI, a key data-labelling company used to train large models. Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang has been tapped to lead Meta’s AI initiative, which is reportedly overseen directly by CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

  Despite the rising competition, OpenAI’s user growth remains strong. The company announced that ChatGPT now has 700 million weekly active users, up from 500 million in March, and processes more than three billion messages per day. The launch of GPT-5 is expected to further extend OpenAI’s technological lead.