Thinking Machines Lab, an enigmatic artificial intelligence company established earlier this year by Mira Murati, former OpenAI Chief Technology Officer, is making significant strides in the industry with its exceptionally high salaries for technical talent.
According to federal data derived from H-1B visa filings obtained by Business Insider, TML is reportedly paying two technical staff members $450,000 annually, with a fourth staffer, a “co-founder/machine learning specialist,” receiving the same salary. A third technical staff member is receiving $500,000 per year. These substantial salaries highlight the company’s aggressive approach to attracting leading expertise in the AI field before releasing its own products.
The data, obtained from mandatory federal filings for non-U.S. resident workers on H-1B visas, provides a rare insight into the highly competitive compensation environment, as such figures are seldom made available publicly. It is essential to recognize that these amounts only represent the foundational salaries and exclude additional lucrative elements typically found in startup remuneration, including equity and sign-on bonuses, which often form a significant portion of the overall earnings.
TML’s average salary for the four technical staff is $462,500, significantly surpassing the average compensation of established large language model companies. OpenAI, where she served for over six years and contributed to ChatGPT’s creation, pays its 29 technical employees an average of $292,115, as indicated in comparable documents. The highest-paid technical position at OpenAI is $530,000, and the lowest is $200,000. Anthropic’s 14 technical hires receive an average of $387,500, with a span of $300,000 to $690,000.
These salary details predate her recent successful seed funding, reportedly achieving a $2 billion investment at a $10 billion valuation. The intense talent acquisition landscape in AI is underscored by Meta’s efforts to hire AI experts with offers as substantial as $100 million in signing bonuses, as noted by Sam Altman, OpenAI’s chief. The startup has also been on a notable recruitment spree, bringing on board former OpenAI chief research officer Bob McGrew, researcher John Schulman, a co-leader in ChatGPT’s development, and other prominent AI professionals. TML’s website currently indicates a halt on new hiring.
