OpenAI's pre-IPO pay hits $1.5 million per employee
OpenAI, the team behind ChatGPT, is making waves with an average stock-based pay of $1.5 million per employee in 2025—about seven times what Google offered before its IPO and far above other major tech companies.
What does the company do?
OpenAI builds cutting-edge AI tools like ChatGPT. The company's stock-based compensation is expected to increase by about $3 billion annually through 2030.
While OpenAI has experienced heavy operating losses, it expects losses to shrink as revenue grows and costs settle down.
Other details
OpenAI's unique pay model uses Profit Participation Units (PPUs) with vesting terms recently improved to allow monthly accrual from day one, giving employees a stake in future profits without traditional shares.
Their stock-based pay made up 46% of revenue—much higher than Palantir, Google, or Facebook before their IPOs.