alt Hacker NewsOpenAI is paying employees more than any major tech startup in history
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“Paying” is a relative term here.
Anyone that works for startups knows that it’s not really “compensation” until it’s cash in your bank account. Until then it’s just a theoretical number on paper, which tends to end up being worth a lot less than originally advertised/hoped.
I’ve lost track of the number of times that someone’s startup got acquired for (insert what sounds like a big number) and everyone is like “wow the employees must all be rich” only to find out later that after preferred cap tables and other terms the employees got very little.
A lot could happen here, but history says “watch this space” on this stock-based comp. Some options on the secondary markets but that only works as long as OpenAI can convince more people to dump money on the burning pile of cash they have going at the moment.
Browsing OpenAI's careers page, I'm seeing at most $275k for most positions, so I'm assuming the median is much lower than an average being pulled up by a few rockstar positions.
I'm not surprised they have to pay higher, since no amount of money could convince me to work towards human irrelevance, or BigAdTech.
When I see this technology improve and free the lives of those whose salary is akin to slavery, then I might reconsider.
Context: I've been reading about the Mondragon Corporation, and it seems a much better model than this maximum extraction economy we are building. I'll submit a story for it, although I discovered it through a HN book recommendation (Kim Stanley Robinson).
I just can't see any clear winners in the AI race. At least not as far as the models/products go.
Maybe a wild round of mergers & acquisitions, combined with regulatory capture and some monopoly will be what settles everything. Probably with a crash in the middle of it all.
"OpenAI’s compensation as a percentage of revenue was set to reach 46% in 2025"
At least the revenue is large enough to cover the payroll. That's a good milestone.
Not really a fan of Altman, but I don't mind the competition he brings to the landscape.
GPT-5.2 has radically changed my outlook on OpenAI. Head and shoulders above others.
The excellence is there.
I heard that the environment there is 996 with high turnover. So you might be paid double in comparison to a FAANG job but you work double as well. (This was about dev positions not researchers)
Anyone know if that’s true? I only heard it second hand.
Looking at the stick compensation of companies in 2000 doesn’t seem particularly relevant today?
The funniest part is there is no amount of money that would get me back in the office again
OpenAI is exactly what happens when a company finds itself in such a far, far away blue ocean strategy that there are no more traditional "economic anchors" (to call it that) to reason with.
It usually ends in blood and tears, for both employees and investors.
BUT: the SOTA has been greatly advanced, which matters a great deal more than the destiny of a particular corporation or the social status of sam-i-am.
So, overall: good news.
OpenAI doesn't offer traditional rsus (at least to regular employees?), but instead profit sharing units.
https://www.levels.fyi/blog/openai-compensation.html
Might change how you evaluate the value here.
Adjusted for inflation?
oh no, that might put upward pressure on Amazon employee salary demands!
The article talks about averages, but what I want know is the median. The usual situation, and I have zero reason to believe OpenAI is different, is that stock options are top heavy leaning heavily toward executives.
I want to know rank and file salaries as opposed to stock options