AI talent wars heat up: Here's what you need to know
2025-12-31_17-36 • 1m 56s
David Faber (Co-Anchor)
00:03.160
Compensation
for
Open
AI's
employees
setting
records
in
Silicon
Valley,
that
according
to
the
Wall
Street
Journal.
McKenzie
Segalas
has
the
latest
on
the
AI
talent
wars.
That's
in
today's
Tech
Check,
Mac.
Mackenzie Sigalos (Technology Reporter)
00:14.320
Hey
David,
so
Open
AI's
investor
decks
are
basically
a
paste
up
version
of
the
AI
arms
race.
The
journal
reporting
that
the
average
salary
across
its
4,000
workers
is
1.5
million
in
stock-based
comp.
That's
more
than
7x
what
Google
disclosed
in
2003
ahead
of
its
IPO.
It's
also
Mackenzie Sigalos (Technology Reporter)
00:32.120
about
46%
of
revenue
in
2025,
a
level
you
almost
never
see
outside
of
the
most
aggressive
pre-IPO
ramps.
Open
AI
also
reportedly
loosening
vesting
rules.
That's
a
retention
move,
plain
and
simple.
The
company
is
trying
to
keep
people
from
walking
the
moment
arrival
calls.
Now,
Mackenzie Sigalos (Technology Reporter)
00:48.160
Open
AI
declined
to
comment
on
the
report
and
there
is
a
big
caveat
to
this.
The
journals
comparing
current
data
to
historical
data
from
over
20
years
ago.
Yes,
you
can
adjust
for
inflation,
but
it
doesn't
fully
reflect
the
fact
that
there
is
so
much
more
money
flooding
Mackenzie Sigalos (Technology Reporter)
01:01.760
captables
and
talent
recruitment
across
Gen
AI
darlings
private
and
public.
Look
at
Meta.
Its
spending
shows
the
incentive
structure
is
changing
fast.
$30
billion
dollars
on
talent
this
year
with
about
half
effectively
tied
to
bringing
Alexander
Wang
in
house.
It's
a
signal
that
Mackenzie Sigalos (Technology Reporter)
01:18.040
the
winners
think
the
bottleneck
is
people
not
just
compute.
Only
a
select
few
can
afford
these
kind
of
pay
packages
which
puts
Open
AI
at
an
advantage.
It
can
run
a
startup
style
equity
fire
A
lot
of
public
companies
don't
have
that
same
flexibility
to
drastically
shift
Mackenzie Sigalos (Technology Reporter)
01:34.640
internal
pay
bands
without
drawing
shareholder
scrutiny.
And
the
economics
of
this
do
get
ugly
fast.
Equity
heavy
comp
inflates
losses
and
dilute
shareholders.
So
in
2026,
the
separating
question
is
sustainability.
Who
can
keep
paying
this
price
at
scale
and
who
has
to
win
with
Mackenzie Sigalos (Technology Reporter)
01:50.760
fewer
outsized
packages,
tighter
headcount,
and
faster
product
cycles.
Guys,
Autoscroll