What Gets Your Best Employees to Stay
$1.5M. That's OpenAI's average stock comp per employee in 2025 — and they still couldn't stop the defections.
Why it matters
AI talent retention is becoming a strategic bottleneck even at frontier labs willing to deploy unprecedented compensation. The story signals broader questions about what actually keeps top AI engineers and researchers committed amid industry poaching wars.
The key facts
9 to knowOpenAI's 2025 stock-based compensation averaged ~$1.5M per employee (pre-IPO)
OpenAI experienced high-profile employee defections despite compensation levels
Meta reportedly extended competing offers in the hundreds of millions (implied)
Framed as a talent retention challenge across the AI industry
Published Aug 2026 — future date suggests this may be a forecast or analysis piece
OpenAI stock-based compensation averaged ~$1.5M per employee in 2025
OpenAI experienced high-profile defections despite unprecedented pre-IPO equity packages
Rivals like Meta extending competing offers in the hundreds of millions (implied)
Framed as a retention/talent management challenge, not a specific departure or hire
Go to the source
MIT Sloan Management Reviewsloanreview.mit.edu
Publisher excerpt: Chris Gash/theispot.com A recent battle for AI talent illustrates how difficult it is for companies to retain key employees. In 2025, OpenAI’s stock-based compensation averaged roughly $1.5 million per employee — unprecedented for a pre-IPO company — yet OpenAI still experienced high-profile…