OpenAI’s London staff receive average of £2.3m per person annually

OpenAI’s London staff each received £2,318,181 on average last year, as the ChatGPT-maker invested heavily in its ambition to lead the global AI race. Accounts for OpenAI UK Ltd, based in Westminster and set to open a new headquarters in London’s King’s Cross area, revealed that 110 staff shared £87m in salaries and £168m in shares in the company, which aims to list on the stock market at a valuation of about $1tn.

The earnings amount to 58 times the median UK full-time employee earnings, according to the Office for National Statistics. An OpenAI worker on an average package could expect to take home about £1,000 an hour in salary and equity before tax. However, there is understood to be a wide discrepancy between the highest and lowest earners, with the biggest compensation packages reserved for AI researchers who contribute to the development of cutting-edge models like Astra.