OpenAI is dangling unprecedented equity packages to secure top artificial-intelligence talent, according to the Wall Street Journal. The company’s stock-based compensation averaged about $1.5 million per employee in 2025 across roughly 4,000 workers—more than seven times Google’s figure before its 2004 IPO and about 34 times the average of 18 large tech firms ahead of going public, based on Equilar data reviewed by the Journal. Equity awards now amount to nearly half of OpenAI’s projected 2025 revenue, exceeding levels at peers such as Palantir, Meta, and Salesforce. The bidding war has intensified as Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has reportedly floated packages worth hundreds of millions—and in rare cases up to $1 billion—to woo elite researchers. OpenAI has countered with multimillion-dollar one-time bonuses and scrapped a six-month waiting period before equity begins to vest. The company expects stock-based compensation to increase by about $3 billion annually through 2030, underscoring the high cost of retaining scarce AI expertise and the rising stakes of the industry’s arms race.
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