Google is using special stock compensation³⁷ to retain its top AI researchers as OpenAI tries to poach them with huge pay packages.

What’s going on here?

Google is guarding its AI talent from leaving to join OpenAI.

What does this mean?

Google is tapping a pool of fast-vesting stock grants worth up to millions per person to prevent its key AI talent at DeepMind from leaving for OpenAI. Google is pulling out all the stops to keep its top AI experts from being lured away by OpenAI's massive compensation offers.

Select DeepMind employees working on Google's Gemini model to rival ChatGPT are being given large grants of Google stock that vest in just 1 year, compared to the normal 4 year vesting period. These grants are in addition to salary and bonuses and can be worth millions based on the person.

Why should I care?

The talent war between Google and OpenAI is crazy and it’s not new. Many key AI researchers at OpenAI have previously worked at Google and led breakthroughs in the AI space. The departures of key personnel could further back Google's efforts to challenge OpenAI, and hence Google is trying to leverage its stock and existing talent pool to stay competitive.