In a bold move to retain its top talent, OpenAI has announced multi-million-dollar bonuses for nearly 1,000 employees about one-third of its full-time workforce, just ahead of the highly anticipated GPT-5 launch.
CEO Sam Altman surprised staff with the news via Slack, revealing that researchers and engineers in applied engineering, scaling, and safety teams will receive quarterly payouts for the next two years.&nbsp;The bonuses, tailored to role and seniority, range from hundreds of thousands for engineers to mid-single-digit millions for senior researchers. Employees can opt to receive the payments in cash, stock, or a mix of both.
Altman attributed the move to fierce competition for AI talent in Silicon Valley, as tech giants and startups battle to attract top researchers. Meta and Elon Musk&rsquo;s xAI have reportedly drawn talent away from OpenAI in recent months.
&ldquo;Given the market movement, we intend to keep raising compensation as the company grows stronger,&rdquo; Altman told staff.
India remains OpenAI&rsquo;s second-largest market after the US, with Altman suggesting it could soon take the top spot.
Alongside the announcement, OpenAI unveiled GPT-5, a unified system capable of handling most queries with its main model, deploying a deeper reasoning version (GPT-5 Thinking) for complex problems, and using a real-time router to optimise responses based on the conversation&rsquo;s needs.

Ahead of GPT-5 launch, OpenAI offers huge payouts to retain top AI researchers and enginee

OpenAI Rolls Out $1M Bonuses for Staff

Ahead of GPT-5 launch, OpenAI offers huge payouts to retain top AI researchers and enginee

August 10, 2025 | 16:44 IST