The Low-Down: OpenAI Is Paying Employees More Than Any Tech Startup In History

Chart showing stock-based compensation prior to IPO among a number of major tech companies that have gone public since 2000.

To put that in perspective, OpenAI is paying 7 times more than Google paid in 2003 and 34 times more than

To put that in perspective, OpenAI is paying 7 times more than Google did in 2003 and 34 times more

than any other startup right. now. JL

STOCK-BASED COMPENSATION PER EMPLOYEE

$0.5

million

1.0

1.5

OpenAI

Alphabet

OpenAI is paying $1.5 million

per employee, on average, to

4,000 workers...

Palantir

Meta

Arm

Uber

32.6

Palo Alto Networks

5.9

DoorDash

*Share for OpenAI uses a 2025 compensation and revenue projection shown to investors this summer; shares for other companies use figures for the most recently concluded year before their IPO, per securities filings.
Note: Figures for companies other than OpenAI are based on an Equilar analysis of company disclosures. Alphabet is the parent company of Google, which went public in 2004. Meta changed its name from Facebook in 2021.
Sources: Company information shared with investors (OpenAI figures); Equilar (all others)

Berber Jin and colleagues report in the Wall Street Journal:

OpenAI is paying employees more than any tech startup in recent history, according to financial data it has shown investors. The company’s stock-based compensation is about $1.5 million per employee, on average, across its workforce of roughly 4,000. That is more than seven times higher than the stock-based pay Google disclosed in 2003, before it filed for an initial public offering in 2004. The $1.5 million is about 34 times the average employee compensation of 18 other large tech companies in the year before they went public, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of data compiled by Equilar. The analysis reviewed major tech IPOs over the last 25 years.
OpenAI is paying employees more than any tech startup in recent history, according to financial data it has shown investors.
The company’s stock-based compensation is about $1.5 million per employee, on average, across its workforce of roughly 4,000.
That is more than seven times higher than the stock-based pay Google disclosed in 2003, before it filed for an initial public offering in 2004. The $1.5 million is about 34 times the average employee compensation of 18 other large tech companies in the year before they went public, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of data compiled by Equilar. The analysis reviewed major tech IPOs over the last 25 years.
Stock-based compensation prior to IPO, in inflation-adjusted 2025 dollars, among major technology companies that have gone public since 2000
STOCK-BASED COMPENSATION PER EMPLOYEE
0
$0.5
million
1.0
1.5
OpenAI
Alphabet
OpenAI is paying $1.5 million
per employee, on average, to
4,000 workers...
Palantir
Meta
...which represents nearly half of the
company’s 2025 revenue.
AppLovin
OVERALL STOCK-BASED COMPENSATION
AS A SHARE OF ANNUAL REVENUE*
Rivian
Didi
OpenAI
Alphabet
Alibaba
ANNUAL REVENUE
Salesforce
46.2%
14.6
Airbnb
CrowdStrike
Palantir
Meta
Arm
Uber
32.6
Palo Alto Networks
5.9
DoorDash
*Share for OpenAI uses a 2025 compensation and revenue projection shown to investors this summer; shares for other companies use figures for the most recently concluded year before their IPO, per securities filings.
Note: Figures for companies other than OpenAI are based on an Equilar analysis of company disclosures. Alphabet is the parent company of Google, which went public in 2004. Meta changed its name from Facebook in 2021.
Sources: Company information shared with investors (OpenAI figures); Equilar (all others)
The compensation figures have been adjusted into 2025 dollars to account for inflation.
An OpenAI spokesman declined to comment.
To keep its lead in the AI race, OpenAI is doling out massive stock compensation packages to top researchers and engineers, making them some of the richest employees in Silicon Valley. The equity awards are inflating the company’s heavy operating losses and diluting existing shareholders at a rapid clip.
As an AI arms race intensified this summer, frontier labs such as OpenAI faced pressure to increase employee pay after Meta Platforms Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg began offering pay packages worth hundreds of millions of dollars—and in some rare cases $1 billion—to top executives and researchers at rival companies.
Zuckerberg’s recruiting blitz swept up 20-plus OpenAI personnel, including ChatGPT co-creator Shengjia Zhao. In August, OpenAI gave some of its research and engineering staff a one-time bonus, with some employees receiving millions of dollars, The Wall Street Journal previously reported.
The financial data, shared with investors over the summer, shows that OpenAI’s stock-based compensation was expected to increase by about $3 billion annually through 2030.
The company recently told staff it would discontinue a policy that required employees to work at OpenAI for at least six months before their equity vests. That development could lead to further compensation increases.
OpenAI’s compensation as a percentage of revenue was set to reach 46% in 2025, the highest of any of the 18 companies except for Rivian, which didn’t generate revenue the year before its IPO. Palantir’s stock-based compensation equaled 33% of its revenue the year before its IPO in 2020, Google’s was 15% and Facebook’s was 6%, the analysis shows.
On average, each company’s stock-based compensation made up about 6% of revenue among tech companies the Journal analyzed in the year before their IPOs, according to the Equilar data.
News Corp, owner of the Journal, has a content-licensing partnership with OpenAI.