In the competitive AI sector, OpenAI and xAI are engaged in a fierce battle for talent, with salaries significantly exceeding industry averages.
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, and Elon Musk, founder of xAI, are at the center of this rivalry. Recent data shows that both companies offer salaries 37% to 87% higher than the industry standard for comparable positions.
xAI currently employs around 100 people, with salaries ranging from $250,000 for entry-level engineers to $500,000 for lead machine learning engineers, the latter being double the average industry wage.
OpenAI, in contrast, has thousands of employees, with salaries ranging from $145,000 to $530,000, reflecting its larger scale and diverse roles.
Other tech giants like Meta, Google, and Microsoft are also competing for AI talent, further inflating salary expectations in the sector.
Investments in both OpenAI and xAI have surpassed $50 billion, underscoring the high stakes in the AI industry.