Average compensation per employee at OpenAI's U.K. unit topped 4 billion won ($2.8 million) last year, as competition for artificial intelligence talent intensifies.
OpenAI Staff Average 4.1 Billion Won, 58 Times U.K. Median Pay
Salaries and stock awards paid to 110 employees totaled 255 million pounds (about 450 billion won) last year, according to an analysis of the U.K. unit's accounts by the British daily The Guardian on the 14th.
That works out to about 2.318 million pounds per employee, or roughly 4.1 billion won.
Not all of that was paid in cash. Salary-related costs accounted for about 87 million pounds, with the remaining 168 million pounds coming in stock awards. Cash pay averaged about 790,000 pounds per employee, or about 1.4 billion won, while stock awards averaged about 1.53 million pounds, or about 2.7 billion won.
Compensation ballooned over the year. Average pay per employee more than doubled from about 1.1 million pounds a year earlier, reaching about 58 times the median wage for all U.K. workers. The figure is total labor costs divided by headcount, so a small number of highly paid staff, such as core AI researchers, may have pushed the average up.
Tens of Millions of Dollars for AI Talent as Big Tech Fights for Recruits
Behind the hefty payouts is an increasingly fierce contest for AI talent.
Developing cutting-edge AI models requires not only vast computing resources but also highly specialized researchers. No matter how many chips and data centers a company secures, it will fall behind without the researchers to drive development.
The problem is that the pool of experts capable of building world-class AI models is extremely limited. Global technology companies are offering astronomical packages to lure researchers away from rivals.
Some firms are promising key talent salaries and stock awards worth tens of millions of dollars over several years. The Guardian reported that OpenAI is paying its staff on a par with English Premier League footballers in a bid to gain the upper hand in the global AI race.
London Research Hub Expands as Revenue More Than Triples
OpenAI is also moving quickly to build Britain into a major research base outside the United States. The U.K. unit, currently in Westminster, London, is preparing a new headquarters in the King's Cross area.
The office houses not only researchers working on AI models but also staff handling sales, marketing and government relations.
The U.K. unit's results grew rapidly as well. Revenue came to about 293 million pounds last year, more than triple the previous year. Pretax profit was about 20.3 million pounds.
With the AI technology race heating up, the competition to pay for top research talent is expected to continue for some time.