Open AI raised $6.6bn. That doesn't mean you want to work there
It's OpenAI's world right now; we're just living in it. The generative AI giant just held the largest fundraising round of all time, bringing in $6.6bn and raising its valuation from $86bn to $157bn. Amongst this success, OpenAI has been rampantly hiring.
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LinkedIn data suggests headcount at the firm has doubled since the start of the year, so that OpenAI now has more than 3,000 employees. In the last 12 months, 'members of technical staff' have gone from less than 400 to ~700. Recent senior hires include Irina Kofman, ex-COO of Google AI, and Bryan Brandow, ex-head of data engineering for augmented reality products at Meta. It's continuing to grow, too, with 174 open positions right now.
While the benefits of joining fast-growing startups often lies in stock-pay, OpenAI also pays eye-watering salaries. The highest paid roles currently open are research engineers in pre-training data processing and architecture, which can each pay up to $530k. Salaries are also rising at OpenAI; the average salary of its employees in 2024 on the H1B Visa salary database is $302.8k, up from $277.8k in 2023.
There are plenty of OpenAI staff members reporting a total compensation of over $1m per year on Levels.fyi. One engineer with eight years' experience said they made $1.38m in their first year with the company, which included $1m in stock. Another with 15 years' experience said they earned $2.27m, including $1.8m in stock.
Pay packages like that would be reason enough to join, but many people also seem to love working there. Employee reviews rate it 4.4 stars from five on both Glassdoor and Blind. We've previously spoken to OpenAI employees who said they joined to work with the smartest people on the planet, and on what they perceive to be the "next big frontier" of technology.
But to what extent is this idyllic presentation of OpenAI a facade? At executive level, things look very different with a slew of senior departures. The latest big name to leave was CTO Mira Murati, but other departures include its president and chief scientist.
The chaos seems to have trickled down. One Blind review says "there is seemingly a tradition of revealing controversial decisions on Friday before the weekend, hoping that people would forget." Staff also allege that OpenAI frequently fires employees, with one Blind review saying, "it seems like everyone has "family issues"". The average tenure at OpenAI is estimated to be a little over eight months.
Some employees seem to like the culture too much. OpenAI has been described by employees as "quasi-religious" on the soft-side and "cultlike" on the hard. As for those that aren't as devoted, one Blind review says many with concerns "stay silent due to fear of losing stock and resources." There was previously a failed coup against CEO Sam Altman, and the many senior departures suggest it's easier to work elsewhere than assert authority over him.
One area Altman likely won't be stopped is the transition of OpenAI to a for-profit company, which could see him earn an equity stake in the business. An investor in the AI space told us "appetite for significant investment in AI sustainability efforts is being overshadowed by focus and competition around AI capitalization," and OpenAI knows how to capitalize. This year it's on track to generate $3.6bn in revenue.
OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment.
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