Mira Murati, the former chief technology officer at OpenAI, has launched a secretive AI startup called Thinking Machines Lab (TML) in February 2025. According to recent federal filings, TML is offering salaries of up to $500,000 to technical talent. The startup, valued at $10 billion, has raised $2 billion in seed funding despite not having launched any public-facing products. TML’s website states that it aims to make AI systems ‘more widely understood, customizable, and generally capable.’ The high salaries are part of the AI talent wars in Silicon Valley, with other major players like OpenAI and Anthropic also offering significant compensation. OpenAI reportedly paid an average salary of $292,115 to its 29 technical employees, while Anthropic paid an average of $387,500 to 14 employees. The competition for AI talent has intensified, with Meta reportedly offering ‘giant’ signing bonuses of up to $100 million to poach OpenAI researchers. In response, OpenAI is ‘recalibrating’ its compensation packages to retain talent.
Former OpenAI Exec Launches AI Startup with $500,000 Salaries for Technical Talent
By techgeekwire