New Delhi: About 1,000 workers, or about one-third of its full-time staff, will get sizeable quarterly bonuses from OpenAI over the next two years when the business launches its newest flagship model, GPT-5.
On the eve of the release of GPT-5, CEO Sam Altman surprised staff members over Slack with the announcement of the decision, which was initially reported by The Verge. Researchers and software engineers in the applied engineering, scaling, and safety divisions—teams essential to the creation and implementation of OpenAI‘s most cutting-edge systems—will get the majority of the bonuses.
The Verge claims that depending on rank and experience, the payments will differ significantly. Senior engineers will make hundreds of thousands of dollars, while top researchers are anticipated to receive mid-single-digit millions. For two years, the bonuses will be paid out quarterly. They can be redeemed for cash, stock, or a combination of the two.
Altman openly attributed the decision in his speech to market forces, including the growing rivalry for AI expertise in Silicon Valley.
“As we mentioned a few weeks ago, we have been looking at comp for our technical teams given the movement in the market,” Altman wrote in the Slack message quoted by The Verge. “We very much intend to keep increasing comp as we keep doing better and better as a company. But we wanted to be transparent about this one since it’s a new thing for us.”
OpenAI has lost a number of well-known experts in recent months to competitors, such as Meta’s AI research section. Senior machine learning talent is also being actively sought after by Elon Musk’s xAI, which offers remuneration packages intended to entice seasoned experts away from well-established laboratories.
Altman has emphasised India’s significance to OpenAI’s expansion on numerous occasions, describing it as the company’s second-largest market after the US and forecasting that it may one day overtake it as its largest. Although the company-wide bonus scheme was launched, industry analysts point out that India is also seeing a sharp increase in rivalry for AI expertise, especially in research centres like Bengaluru and Hyderabad.
