OpenAI trying to attract top Google engineers, researchers with up to Rs 83 crore annual salary: Report

OpenAI is reportedly offering lucrative pay packages of up to $10 million (over Rs 83 crore) to attract top researchers from Google, according to a report by The Information. 

This is not the first time OpenAI has tried to hire from the top ranks of Google. OpenAI is planning to target senior researchers from Google’s AI teams, promising them annual pay, mostly in the form of stock, ranging from $5 million to $10 million. The report claims that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has even personally appealed to key Google AI researchers to join the firm.

According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, OpenAI plans to sell existing employees’ shares, valuing the company at an impressive $80 billion to $90 billion. If workers join OpenAI before the sales go through, they could get stock right before the valuation approximately triples, meaning their shares could quickly jump 300 per cent in value, plus they could get large stock grants later on.

OpenAI primarily generates revenue through $20-a-month subscriptions to ChatGPT Plus, as well as by selling the use of its AI models to developers and businesses. Microsoft has invested billions to own about half of OpenAI and provides the San Francisco company with the massive cloud computing power needed to train and test its models.

Despite the prevailing trend of layoffs in the larger tech industry in 2023, companies are spending heavily on companies developing AI models. For instance, another San Francisco AI startup, Anthropic, recently announced billions in new investments from Amazon and Google, each of which laid off thousands of workers within the last year.

OpenAI is capitalising on the interest in AI technology to establish itself among the industry’s giants. At the end of October, the company leased 486,600 square feet of office space from Uber in San Francisco’s Mission Bay. However, it’s worth noting that some employees have moved in the other direction, from OpenAI to Google, indicating that talent wars are just beginning to take shape between the companies. 

Also read: Humane AI Pin launched: Microsoft-backed company built by former Apple execs could change the future of smartphones; all you need to know

Also read: Amazon to take on OpenAI and Microsoft with Olympus AI: Report