OpenAI’s pay packages dwarf pre-IPO tech peers
2025-12-31_20-07 • 3m 0s
Brian Sullivan (Anchor)
00:00.160
McKenzie
Sigalos
joining
us
now
from
San
Francisco
Mac.
These
are
big
numbers.
Mackenzie Sigalos (Business News Reporter)
00:05.640
They
really
are.
And
when
you
compare
it
to
other
companies
out
here
in
Silicon
Valley,
it
really
just
puts
it
into
perspective.
So,
let's
start
with
Google,
right?
Before
it
filed
to
go
public
in
2004,
it
disclosed
stock-based
comp
and
adjusted
for
inflation,
it
was
roughly
1/7
Mackenzie Sigalos (Business News Reporter)
00:19.840
of
what
Open
AI
is
paying
now.
And
if
you
zoom
it
out
to
a
broader
peer
set,
the
gap
gets
even
wider.
Open
AI's
per
employees.com
is
about
34
times
the
average
at
18
other
large
tech
companies
in
the
year
before
they
went
public
according
to
a
Wall
Street
Journal
analysis
and
Mackenzie Sigalos (Business News Reporter)
00:37.120
those
same
investors
X
Brian
they
show
that
OpenAI
expects
stock-based
comp
to
rise
by
roughly
$3
billion
a
year
through
2030.
Brian Sullivan (Anchor)
00:45.560
All
right,
so
because
as
I
referenced
on
the
intro
you
know
math
averages
can
average
is
the
most
like
misused
word
out
there
because
if
you
got
one
guy
or
one
woman
making
$100
million
it
can
skew
the
average.
Do
we
know
and
Maybe
we
don't.
Is
everybody
just
making
a
bundle
or
Brian Sullivan (Anchor)
01:03.080
there
are
a
couple
of
just
superstars
just
printing
gigantic
sums
of
money?
Mackenzie Sigalos (Business News Reporter)
01:08.120
You
can
certainly
assume
that
there
are
a
handful
of
MVPs
that
are
garnering
nine-figure
salaries
that
are
helping
to
skew
that
number
higher.
But
what
I
will
say
is
that
Open
AI
has
been
in
the
midst
of
this
code-red
period
where
it's
been
all
hands-on-deck
looking
to
shore
up
Mackenzie Sigalos (Business News Reporter)
01:22.240
their
models
because
Google
Gemini
has
made
such
strides.
That's
long
hours
during
the
holiday.
It
is
a
finite
period
that
this
uh
code-red
It's
supposed
to
end
in
January.
And
so
people
across
the
board,
not
just
the
people
who
are
building
the
LLMs,
but
some
of
your
mid-tier
Mackenzie Sigalos (Business News Reporter)
01:36.480
talent
want
to
be
compensated
and
it's
such
a
competitive
market
that
OpenAI
realizes
it
needs
to
pay
up.
And
another
uh
data
point
for
you
here,
OpenAI's
equity
spend
is
projected
to
hit
46%
of
revenue
this
year.
For
context,
Palantir
was
at
33%
before
its
IPO.
Brian Sullivan (Anchor)
01:54.560
Little
history.
I
was
actually
on
the
train.
There
is
a
train,
believe
it
or
not,
from
Mountain
View,
California
to
San
Francisco
today.
Google,
I
would
say
IPO,
but
it
was
a
Dutch
auction.
Anyway,
a
lot
of
people
on
the
train
were
employees
that
got
really
rich.
There
were
Brian Sullivan (Anchor)
02:07.120
people
literally
weeping
and
throwing
champagne.
I've
got
to
imagine
that
these
employees,
when
and
if
they
go
public
at
Open
AI,
they're
not
only
going
to
be
hugely
rich
themselves,
but
the
entire
region
and
the
city
of
San
Francisco
where
you
currently
sit,
that
is
a
real
shot
Brian Sullivan (Anchor)
02:23.320
behind
you,
McKenzie,
that
they're
going
to
have
a
huge
tax
windfall.
The
mayor's
got
to
be
happy
about
that.
Mackenzie Sigalos (Business News Reporter)
02:30.000
Yeah,
not
not
a
green
screen.
Baybridge
behind
me.
Yeah,
I
mean
when
you
look
at
these
numbers,
and
we
were
talking
about
who
stands
stands
to
gain
the
most
if
opening
eye
goes
public
in
2026,
we
know
that
at
least
internally
they
are
working
through
the
mechanics
of
how
to
do
Mackenzie Sigalos (Business News Reporter)
02:41.320
that.
Uh
we're
talking
about
that
in
the
context
of
SoftBank
yesterday,
their
10%
stake.
Microsoft
has
a
27%
stake.
They've
already
10x
their
investment
to
$135
billion,
but
certainly
a
lot
of
a
very
uh
newly
minted
billionaires
uh
out
here
in
San
Francisco,
and
yes,
they
will
Mackenzie Sigalos (Business News Reporter)
02:58.360
have
to
pay
taxes.
Hmm.
Autoscroll