Silicon Valley's Billion-Dollar Battle for AI Talent: OpenAI, Google, and xAI Compete for Top Researchers

OpenAI, Google and xAI battle for superstar AI talent, shelling out millions

SAN FRANCISCO, May 21 (Reuters) - The contest in Silicon Valley to dominate artificial intelligence is playing out on a new court: superstar researchers. While the scramble to attract top talent and keep them happy has always been a hallmark of the tech industry, since ChatGPT launched in late 2022, recruiting has escalated to professional athlete levels, a dozen people who have been involved in recruiting AI researchers told Reuters. "The AI labs approach hiring like a game of chess," said Ariel Herbert-Voss, CEO of cybersecurity startup RunSybil and a former OpenAI researcher who entered the talent fight after launching his own company. "They want to move as fast as possible, so they are willing to pay a lot for candidates with specialized and complementary expertise, much like the game pieces. They are like, do I have enough rooks? Enough knights?" Companies including OpenAI and Google, eager to get or stay ahead in the race to create the best AI models, court these so-called "ICs" - the individual contributors whose work can make or break companies. Noam Brown, one of the researchers behind OpenAI's recent AI breakthroughs in complex math and science reasoning, said when he explored job opportunities in 2023, he found himself being courted by tech's elite: lunch with Google founder Sergey Brin, poker at Sam Altman's, and a private jet visit from an eager investor. Elon Musk will also make calls to close candidates for xAI, his AI company, said two people who have spoken to him. xAI did not respond to a request for comment. Ultimately, Brown said, he chose OpenAI because OpenAI was willing to put resources - both people and compute - behind the work he was excited about. "It was actually financially not the best option that I had," he said, explaining that compensation is not the most important thing for many researchers. That hasn't stopped companies from throwing millions of dollars in bonuses and pay packages at star researchers, according to seven sources familiar with the matter. A few top OpenAI researchers who have indicated interest in joining former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever's new company, SSI, were offered retention bonuses of $2 million, in addition to equity increases of $20 million or more, if they stayed, two sources told Reuters. Some have only been required to stay for a year in order to get the entire bonus. SSI and OpenAI declined to comment. Other OpenAI researchers who have fielded offers from Eleven Labs have received bonuses of at least $1 million to stay at OpenAI, two sources told Reuters. Top OpenAI researchers regularly receive compensation packages of over $10 million a year, sources said. Google DeepMind has offered top researchers $20 million per year compensation packages, awarded off-cycle equity grants specifically to AI researchers, and has also reduced vesting on some stock packages to 3 years, instead of the normal 4 years, sources said. Google declined to comment. In contrast, top engineers at big tech companies receive an average yearly compensation of $281,000 in salary and $261,000 in equity, according to Comprehensive.io, a company that tracks tech industry compensation. 10,000x TALENT While talent has always been important in Silicon Valley, the difference with the AI boom is how few people are in this elite group - depending on who you ask, the number could range from a few dozen to around a thousand, eight sources told Reuters. That is based on the belief that this very small number of 'ICs' have made outsized contributions to the development of large language models, the technology today's AI boom is based on, and therefore could make or break the success of an AI model. "sure 10x engineers are cool but damn those 10,000x engineer/researchers...," OpenAI CEO Sam Altman tweeted in late 2023, alluding to a long held maxim that the best software engineers were 10 times as good as the average (10x), but now in the AI industry, the best researchers are 10,000 times (10,000x) as effective as the average. The September departure of OpenAI's chief technology officer, Mira Murati, who then founded a rival AI startup, has intensified the AI talent war. Murati, who was known at OpenAI for her management skills and execution prowess, recruited 20 OpenAI employees before announcing her company in February. She has now lured even more researchers from OpenAI and other labs, and the team is now around 60 people, two sources told Reuters. Though the company has no product in the market, Murati is in the middle of closing a record-breaking seed round that is, based on the team's strength. A representative for Murati declined to comment. The scarcity of talent has forced companies to approach hiring creatively. Zeki Data, a data firm focused on identifying top AI talent , said it is employing sports industry data analysis techniques like the one popularized by the movie "Moneyball" to identify promising but undiscovered talent. For instance, Zeki Data discovered Anthropic has been hiring researchers with theoretical physics backgrounds, and other AI companies have hired individuals with quantum computing backgrounds. Anthropic did not reply to a request for comment. "On my team, I have extraordinarily talented mathematicians who wouldn't have come to this field if it weren't for the fast progress that we're seeing now," said Sébastien Bubeck, who left, opens new tab his role as vice president of GenAI research at Microsoft last year to join OpenAI. "We're seeing an influx of talent from all fields going into AI now. And some of these people are very, very clever, and they make a difference." Reporting by Anna Tong in San Francisco; editing by Kenneth Li and Claudia Parsons Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab Suggested Topics:Artificial Intelligence Anna Tong Thomson Reuters Anna Tong is a correspondent for Reuters based in San Francisco, where she reports on the technology industry. She joined Reuters in 2023 after working at the San Francisco Standard as a data editor. Tong previously worked at technology startups as a product manager and at Google where she worked in user insights and helped run a call center. Tong graduated from Harvard University. Kenrick Cai Thomson Reuters Kenrick Cai is a correspondent for Reuters based in San Francisco. He covers Google, its parent company Alphabet and artificial intelligence. Cai joined Reuters in 2024. He previously worked at Forbes magazine, where he was a staff writer covering venture capital and startups. He received a Best in Business award from the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing in 2023. He is a graduate of Duke University.

Inside Silicon Valley's billion-dollar battle for AI talent

OpenAI is reportedly developing a social media platform similar to X, featuring an internal prototype that integrates ChatGPT's image generation capabilities. The contest in Silicon Valley to dominate artificial intelligence is playing out on a new court: superstar researchers. While the scramble to attract top talent and keep them happy has always been a hallmark of the tech industry, since ChatGPT launched in late 2022, recruiting has escalated to professional athlete levels, a dozen people who have been involved in recruiting AI researchers told Reuters. "The AI labs approach hiring like a game of chess," said Ariel Herbert-Voss, CEO of cybersecurity startup RunSybil and a former OpenAI researcher who entered the talent fight after launching his own company. "They want to move as fast as possible, so they are willing to pay a lot for candidates with specialized and complementary expertise, much like the game pieces. They are like, do I have enough rooks? Enough knights?" Companies including OpenAI and Google, eager to get or stay ahead in the race to create the best AI models, court these so-called "ICs" - the individual contributors whose work can make or break companies. Noam Brown, one of the researchers behind OpenAI's recent AI breakthroughs in complex math and science reasoning, said when he explored job opportunities in 2023, he found himself being courted by tech's elite: lunch with Google founder Sergey Brin, poker at Sam Altman's, and a private jet visit from an eager investor. Elon Musk will also make calls to close candidates for xAI, his AI company, said two people who have spoken to him. xAI did not respond to a request for comment. Ultimately, Brown said, he chose OpenAI because OpenAI was willing to put resources - both people and compute - behind the work he was excited about. "It was actually financially not the best option that I had," he said, explaining that compensation is not the most important thing for many researchers. That hasn't stopped companies from throwing millions of dollars in bonuses and pay packages at star researchers, according to seven sources familiar with the matter. A few top OpenAI researchers who have indicated interest in joining former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever's new company, SSI, were offered retention bonuses of $2 million, in addition to equity increases of $20 million or more, if they stayed, two sources told Reuters. Some have only been required to stay for a year in order to get the entire bonus. SSI and OpenAI declined to comment. Other OpenAI researchers who have fielded offers from Eleven Labs have received bonuses of at least $1 million to stay at OpenAI, two sources told Reuters. Top OpenAI researchers regularly receive compensation packages of over $10 million a year, sources said. Google DeepMind has offered top researchers $20 million per year compensation packages, awarded off-cycle equity grants specifically to AI researchers, and has also reduced vesting on some stock packages to 3 years, instead of the normal 4 years, sources said. Google declined to comment. In contrast, top engineers at big tech companies receive an average yearly compensation of $281,000 in salary and $261,000 in equity, according to Comprehensive.io, a company that tracks tech industry compensation. 10,000 times the talent While talent has always been important in Silicon Valley, the difference with the AI boom is how few people are in this elite group - depending on who you ask, the number could range from a few dozen to around a thousand, eight sources told Reuters. That is based on the belief that this very small number of 'ICs' have made outsized contributions to the development of large language models, the technology today's AI boom is based on, and therefore could make or break the success of an AI model. "Sure 10x engineers are cool but damn those 10,000x engineer/researchers...," OpenAI CEO Sam Altman tweeted in late 2023, alluding to a long held maxim that the best software engineers were 10 times as good as the average (10x), but now in the AI industry, the best researchers are 10,000 times (10,000x) as effective as the average. The September departure of OpenAI's chief technology officer, Mira Murati, who then founded a rival AI startup, has intensified the AI talent war. Murati, who was known at OpenAI for her management skills and execution prowess, recruited 20 OpenAI employees before announcing her company in February. She has now lured even more researchers from OpenAI and other labs, and the team is now around 60 people, two sources told Reuters. Though the company has no product in the market, Murati is in the middle of closing record-breaking seed round that is, based on the team's strength. A representative for Murati declined to comment. The scarcity of talent has forced companies to approach hiring creatively. Zeki Data, a data firm focused on identifying top AI talent, said it is employing sports industry data analysis techniques like the one popularized by the movie "Moneyball" to identify promising but undiscovered talent. For instance, Zeki Data discovered Anthropic has been hiring researchers with theoretical physics backgrounds, and other AI companies have hired individuals with quantum computing backgrounds. Anthropic did not reply to a request for comment. "On my team, I have extraordinarily talented mathematicians who wouldn't have come to this field if it weren't for the fast progress that we're seeing now," said Sébastien Bubeck, who left his role as vice president of GenAI research at Microsoft last year to join OpenAI. "We're seeing an influx of talent from all fields going into AI now. And some of these people are very, very clever, and they make a difference."

OpenAI, Google, xAI battle for superstar AI talent, shelling out millions

Silicon Valley's AI talent war has intensified, with top researchers being courted like sports stars. OpenAI, Google, and others offer multimillion-dollar packages to retain elite "10,000x" contributors. Startups like Mira Murati's and data firms like Zeki Data are creatively sourcing talent, recognising the critical impact of a few exceptional individuals.The contest in Silicon Valley to dominate artificial intelligence is playing out on a new court: superstar researchers. While the scramble to attract top talent and keep them happy has always been a hallmark of the tech industry, since ChatGPT launched in late 2022, recruiting has escalated to professional athlete levels, a dozen people who have been involved in recruiting AI researchers told Reuters. "The AI labs approach hiring like a game of chess," said Ariel Herbert-Voss, CEO of cybersecurity startup RunSybil and a former OpenAI researcher who entered the talent fight after launching his own company. "They want to move as fast as possible, so they are willing to pay a lot for candidates with specialized and complementary expertise, much like the game pieces. They are like, do I have enough rooks? Enough knights?" Companies including OpenAI and Google, eager to get or stay ahead in the race to create the best AI models, court these so-called "ICs" - the individual contributors whose work can make or break companies. Noam Brown, one of the researchers behind OpenAI's recent AI breakthroughs in complex math and science reasoning, said when he explored job opportunities in 2023, he found himself being courted by tech's elite: lunch with Google founder Sergey Brin, poker at Sam Altman's, and a private jet visit from an eager investor. Elon Musk will also make calls to close candidates for xAI, his AI company, said two people who have spoken to him. xAI did not respond to a request for comment. Ultimately, Brown said, he chose OpenAI because OpenAI was willing to put resources - both people and compute - behind the work he was excited about. "It was actually financially not the best option that I had," he said, explaining that compensation is not the most important thing for many researchers. That hasn't stopped companies from throwing millions of dollars in bonuses and pay packages at star researchers, according to seven sources familiar with the matter. A few top OpenAI researchers who have indicated interest in joining former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever's new company, SSI, were offered retention bonuses of $2 million, in addition to equity increases of $20 million or more, if they stayed, two sources told Reuters. Some have only been required to stay for a year in order to get the entire bonus. SSI and OpenAI declined to comment. Other OpenAI researchers who have fielded offers from Eleven Labs have received bonuses of at least $1 million to stay at OpenAI, two sources told Reuters. Top OpenAI researchers regularly receive compensation packages of over $10 million a year, sources said. Google DeepMind has offered top researchers $20 million per year compensation packages, awarded off-cycle equity grants specifically to AI researchers, and has also reduced vesting on some stock packages to 3 years, instead of the normal 4 years, sources said. Google declined to comment. In contrast, top engineers at big tech companies receive an average yearly compensation of $281,000 in salary and $261,000 in equity, according to Comprehensive.io, a company that tracks tech industry compensation. 10,000x talent While talent has always been important in Silicon Valley, the difference with the AI boom is how few people are in this elite group - depending on who you ask, the number could range from a few dozen to around a thousand, eight sources told Reuters. That is based on the belief that this very small number of 'ICs' have made outsized contributions to the development of large language models, the technology today's AI boom is based on, and therefore could make or break the success of an AI model. "sure 10x engineers are cool but damn those 10,000x engineer/researchers...," OpenAI CEO Sam Altman tweeted in late 2023, alluding to a long held maxim that the best software engineers were 10 times as good as the average (10x), but now in the AI industry, the best researchers are 10,000 times (10,000x) as effective as the average. The September departure of OpenAI's chief technology officer, Mira Murati, who then founded a rival AI startup, has intensified the AI talent war. Murati, who was known at OpenAI for her management skills and execution prowess, recruited 20 OpenAI employees before announcing her company in February. She has now lured even more researchers from OpenAI and other labs, and the team is now around 60 people, two sources told Reuters. Though the company has no product in the market, Murati is in the middle of closing record-breaking seed round that is, based on the team's strength. A representative for Murati declined to comment. The scarcity of talent has forced companies to approach hiring creatively. Zeki Data, a data firm focused on identifying top AI talent, said it is employing sports industry data analysis techniques like the one popularized by the movie "Moneyball" to identify promising but undiscovered talent. For instance, Zeki Data discovered Anthropic has been hiring researchers with theoretical physics backgrounds, and other AI companies have hired individuals with quantum computing backgrounds. Anthropic did not reply to a request for comment. "On my team, I have extraordinarily talented mathematicians who wouldn't have come to this field if it weren't for the fast progress that we're seeing now," said Sebastien Bubeck, who left his role as vice president of GenAI research at Microsoft last year to join OpenAI. "We're seeing an influx of talent from all fields going into AI now. And some of these people are very, very clever, and they make a difference."

Techies quickly brush up on AI, here's the whopping amount OpenAI, Google and xAI are shelling out and it's in millions

Big tech companies like OpenAI, Google, and xAI are fighting to hire the best AI researchers. These experts are super rare and very powerful in shaping AI. Some are getting huge bonuses and offers, and even ex-leaders like Mira Murati are starting rival AI firms.Since ChatGPT launched in late 2022, tech companies are fighting hard to hire top AI researchers, it's like a battle to get superstars, as per reports. Hiring in AI labs is like playing chess, each person is a strategic move, and companies want people with the right skills, says Ariel Herbert-Voss, ex-OpenAI researcher and CEO of RunSybil. These top people are called "ICs", and their work can decide a company's future. When Noam Brown, a top OpenAI researcher, was job hunting in 2023, he got lunch with Google founder Sergey Brin, poker game at OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's house, and a private jet visit from a rich investor, as mentioned in the report by Reuters. Even Musk, the Tesla boss and owner of xAI, is mesmerized by the researchers. So much so that he himself pitches his company and the job offer to these tech geeks. Noam Brown finally chose to stay at OpenAI because they supported his work, not just with money, but also people and computing power. He said it wasn't even the best financial offer, but doing meaningful work mattered more to him. Still, money is flowing big time, some top researchers at OpenAI were offered $2 million bonuses and $20 million in equity to stop them from leaving for SSI, a company by OpenAI's ex-chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, says Reuters report. Full bonuses run in abundance among these rare breeds of researchers, with most of them required to stay just for a year to lap up the bonus paychecks. OpenAI researchers who got offers from Eleven Labs were given $1 million plus to stay. Many OpenAI researchers get over $10 million per year in total compensation, says reports. At Google DeepMind, researchers are being offered $20 million/year packages, extra equity grants outside normal cycles, and a stock vesting reduced to 3 years instead of 4, as per reports. In comparison, regular top tech engineers make around $280K in salary and another $260K in stock each year, way less than what star AI researchers are getting. In the AI world, there are only a few dozen to a thousand top AI researchers, very rare and super valuable, as mentioned in the report by Reuters. These rare experts are believed to be behind major progress in large language models. Open AI supremo Sam Altman, in a post on his now X but then Twitter handle, in 2023, said that 10x engineers are cool, but 10,000x researchers are even better. Mira Murati, who used to be the chief tech officer at OpenAI, left the company in September and started her own AI company.* She was known for her leadership and ability to get things done at OpenAI. By February, she had already hired 20 people from OpenAI, and now her team is around 60 people strong. Even though her company doesn't have a product yet, it's about to raise a record-breaking seed funding round, mostly because of how strong her team is, as per the report by Reuters. Because good AI talent is so rare, companies are getting creative. A company called Zeki Data is using sports-style scouting methods like the "Moneyball" movie to find under-the-radar AI talent. Other AI companies are hiring people with quantum computing experience. Sebastien Bubeck, who left Microsoft to join OpenAI, said AI is now attracting top talent from all fields, especially math. He told Reuters that some of these new people are super smart and really making a difference Q1. Why are tech companies paying so much to AI researchers? Because great AI researchers are rare and can help companies build better AI faster. Q2. How is hiring in AI different from other tech jobs? In AI, hiring is super competitive and focused on just a few top experts who can make a big impact.

Google vs OpenAI ChatGpt: Tech giants find new ways to emerge winners in AI battle?

OpenAI, Google and other tech giants are eager to stay ahead in the race to create the best AI models.Silicon Valley is witnessing a new kind of contest in order to dominate the field of artificial intelligence. While the scramble to attract top talent and keep them happy has always been a hallmark of the tech industry, since ChatGPT launched in late 2022, recruiting has escalated to professional athlete levels, a dozen people who have been involved in recruiting AI researchers told Reuters. Companies including OpenAI and Google, eager to get or stay ahead in the race to create the best AI models, court these so-called "ICs" - the individual contributors whose work can make or break companies. Noam Brown, one of the researchers behind OpenAI's recent AI breakthroughs in complex math and science reasoning, said when he explored job opportunities in 2023, he found himself being courted by tech's elite: lunch with Google founder Sergey Brin, poker at Sam Altman's, and a private jet visit from an eager investor. Elon Musk will also make calls to close candidates for xAI, his AI company, said two people who have spoken to him. xAI did not respond to a request for comment. Ultimately, Brown said, he chose OpenAI because OpenAI was willing to put resources - both people and compute - behind the work he was excited about. A few top OpenAI researchers who have indicated interest in joining former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever's new company, SSI, were offered retention bonuses of $2 million, in addition to equity increases of $20 million or more, if they stayed, two sources told Reuters. Some have only been required to stay for a year in order to get the entire bonus. SSI and OpenAI declined to comment. Other OpenAI researchers who have fielded offers from Eleven Labs have received bonuses of at least $1 million to stay at OpenAI, two sources told Reuters. Top OpenAI researchers regularly receive compensation packages of over $10 million a year, sources said. Google DeepMind has offered top researchers $20 million per year compensation packages, awarded off-cycle equity grants specifically to AI researchers, and has also reduced vesting on some stock packages to 3 years, instead of the normal 4 years, sources said. Google declined to comment. In contrast, top engineers at big tech companies receive an average yearly compensation of $281,000 in salary and $261,000 in equity, according to Comprehensive.io, a company that tracks tech industry compensation. Q1. What is full form of AI? A1. The full form of AI is Artificial Intelligence. Q2. Who invented ChatGpt? A2. ChatGpt was developed by OpenAI.

OpenAI, Google, xAI battle for superstar AI talent, shelling out millions

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -The contest in Silicon Valley to dominate artificial intelligence is playing out on a new court: superstar researchers. While the scramble to attract top talent and keep them happy has always been a hallmark of the tech industry, since ChatGPT launched in late 2022, recruiting has escalated to professional athlete levels, a dozen people who have been involved in recruiting AI researchers told Reuters. "The AI labs approach hiring like a game of chess," said Ariel Herbert-Voss, CEO of cybersecurity startup RunSybil and a former OpenAI researcher who entered the talent fight after launching his own company. "They want to move as fast as possible, so they are willing to pay a lot for candidates with specialized and complementary expertise, much like the game pieces. They are like, do I have enough rooks? Enough knights?" Companies including OpenAI and Google, eager to get or stay ahead in the race to create the best AI models, court these so-called "ICs" - the individual contributors whose work can make or break companies. Noam Brown, one of the researchers behind OpenAI's recent AI breakthroughs in complex math and science reasoning, said when he explored job opportunities in 2023, he found himself being courted by tech's elite: lunch with Google founder Sergey Brin, poker at Sam Altman's, and a private jet visit from an eager investor. Elon Musk will also make calls to close candidates for xAI, his AI company, said two people who have spoken to him. xAI did not respond to a request for comment. Ultimately, Brown said, he chose OpenAI because OpenAI was willing to put resources - both people and compute - behind the work he was excited about. "It was actually financially not the best option that I had," he said, explaining that compensation is not the most important thing for many researchers. That hasn't stopped companies from throwing millions of dollars in bonuses and pay packages at star researchers, according to seven sources familiar with the matter. A few top OpenAI researchers who have indicated interest in joining former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever's new company, SSI, were offered retention bonuses of $2 million, in addition to equity increases of $20 million or more, if they stayed, two sources told Reuters. Some have only been required to stay for a year in order to get the entire bonus. SSI and OpenAI declined to comment. Other OpenAI researchers who have fielded offers from Eleven Labs have received bonuses of at least $1 million to stay at OpenAI, two sources told Reuters. Top OpenAI researchers regularly receive compensation packages of over $10 million a year, sources said. Google DeepMind has offered top researchers $20 million per year compensation packages, awarded off-cycle equity grants specifically to AI researchers, and has also reduced vesting on some stock packages to 3 years, instead of the normal 4 years, sources said. Google declined to comment. In contrast, top engineers at big tech companies receive an average yearly compensation of $281,000 in salary and $261,000 in equity, according to Comprehensive.io, a company that tracks tech industry compensation. 10,000x TALENT While talent has always been important in Silicon Valley, the difference with the AI boom is how few people are in this elite group - depending on who you ask, the number could range from a few dozen to around a thousand, eight sources told Reuters. That is based on the belief that this very small number of 'ICs' have made outsized contributions to the development of large language models, the technology today's AI boom is based on, and therefore could make or break the success of an AI model. "sure 10x engineers are cool but damn those 10,000x engineer/researchers...," OpenAI CEO Sam Altman tweeted in late 2023, alluding to a long held maxim that the best software engineers were 10 times as good as the average (10x), but now in the AI industry, the best researchers are 10,000 times (10,000x) as effective as the average. The September departure of OpenAI's chief technology officer, Mira Murati, who then founded a rival AI startup, has intensified the AI talent war. Murati, who was known at OpenAI for her management skills and execution prowess, recruited 20 OpenAI employees before announcing her company in February. She has now lured even more researchers from OpenAI and other labs, and the team is now around 60 people, two sources told Reuters. Though the company has no product in the market, Murati is in the middle of closing a record-breaking seed round that is, based on the team's strength. A representative for Murati declined to comment. The scarcity of talent has forced companies to approach hiring creatively. Zeki Data, a data firm focused on identifying top AI talent, said it is employing sports industry data analysis techniques like the one popularized by the movie "Moneyball" to identify promising but undiscovered talent. For instance, Zeki Data discovered Anthropic has been hiring researchers with theoretical physics backgrounds, and other AI companies have hired individuals with quantum computing backgrounds. Anthropic did not reply to a request for comment. "On my team, I have extraordinarily talented mathematicians who wouldn't have come to this field if it weren't for the fast progress that we're seeing now," said Sébastien Bubeck, who left his role as vice president of GenAI research at Microsoft last year to join OpenAI. "We're seeing an influx of talent from all fields going into AI now. And some of these people are very, very clever, and they make a difference." (Reporting by Anna Tong in San Francisco; editing by Kenneth Li and Claudia Parsons)