OpenAI reports average employee compensation of 6.08 million, a record in tech history

(San Francisco, Jan 2) U.S. media reports citing OpenAI’s investor financial disclosures estimate that in 2025 the company’s stock-option compensation averages about $1.5 million per employee. With roughly 4,000 employees, that would place OpenAI above any major tech startup on a per-worker equity-compensation basis.

The report says this figure is more than seven times Google’s stock-based compensation level disclosed in 2003 ahead of its 2004 IPO filing, and about 34 times the average employee equity compensation among major tech firms in the year before they went public (based on a 25-year review using Equilar data, inflation-adjusted).

OpenAI’s outsized equity awards are framed as a strategy to retain top AI researchers and engineers amid an escalating talent war. However, the same awards add to operating losses and dilute existing shareholders. The report adds that equity compensation is projected to rise by roughly $3 billion per year through 2030, and that OpenAI has dropped a policy requiring employees to stay at least six months before receiving equity—potentially pushing compensation costs higher.

Talent poaching intensifies
Competition reportedly increased in summer 2025 as Meta ramped up recruiting and named former OpenAI researcher and ChatGPT co-creator Shengjia Zhao as chief scientist of its new Superintelligence Lab effort.

The Wall Street Journal has also reported OpenAI responded with one-time bonuses for some staff, with certain employees receiving multi-million-dollar payouts.

Compensation as a share of revenue
The analysis cited in the report estimates OpenAI’s employee compensation at about 46% of revenue in 2025—one of the highest ratios among the companies compared—while pre-IPO equity compensation at most tech firms averaged in the single digits as a share of revenue.