Who is paying extraordinary comp in 2026?

No surprise, it’s AI and OpenAI in particular. WSJ reports the company is “paying employees more than any tech startup in recent history” at $1.5M each in stock-based pay on average, which is 7x higher Google’s pre-IPO levels and 34x the average for 18 large tech companies over the last 25 years.

• It makes up almost half of the company’s annual revenue at 46.2%. (In comparison, Palantir’s stock-based comp pre-IPO was 32.6%, the next closest company. Google was 14.6% and Facebook 5.9%.)
• It’s expected to increase by $3B each year through 2030.
• It will immediately vest: “The company recently told staff it would discontinue a policy that required employees to work at OpenAI for at least six months before their equity vests. That development could lead to further compensation increases.” (In April, the company already shortened the 12 month cliff to 6 months, per WSJ)
• It’s due to the AI talent war. WSJ reports that “AI companies including Meta Platforms, Google and Anthropic [are] wooing top researchers with pay packages that can be worth $100 million or more.”