The tech giant Meta is reportedly offering salaries in the mid-six figures, with some top engineers and researchers earning up to $480,000 in base salary. According to federal filings, the company is paying its AI talent a staggering amount, including research engineers making up to $440,000, machine learning roles going as high as $440,000, and software engineers taking home up to $480,000.
The competition for AI talent has reached a fever pitch in Silicon Valley, with companies like Meta offering lucrative compensation packages. Even smaller startups are getting in on the action, with Thinking Machines Lab reportedly paying its technical staff base salaries of up to $500,000 before launching a single product.
Meta’s salary ranges reflect only annual salaries, excluding stock options and other perks that can significantly boost total compensation packages. The company’s spending on AI talent is estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, as it builds out its Superintelligence lab.
The frenzy has extended beyond Meta, with rival companies and startups scrambling to attract top talent. OpenAI’s former chief technology officer, Mira Murati, has spoken out about the loss of seven researchers, including Trapit Bansal, a cocreator of the o1 reasoning model.
Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-salaries-what-it-pays-ai-engineers-researchers-compensation-2025-7