OpenAI's London office paid its 110 staff members an average of £2.3 million each in the past year, according to company accounts filed with UK regulators. The payments comprised £87 million in salaries and £168 million in shares.
The Westminster-based unit of the ChatGPT maker distributed these sums as the company pursues a stock market listing at a valuation around $1 trillion. OpenAI is expanding its London presence with a new headquarters in the King's Cross area.
The average compensation per employee far exceeds typical tech sector pay in the UK and rivals salaries paid to Premier League footballers. The heavy share allocation reflects OpenAI's strategy to retain staff during its rapid growth and path toward public markets.
The figures, contained in OpenAI UK Ltd's filed accounts, show the scale of resources the company is deploying to build its engineering and research capabilities outside the United States. The average £2.3 million per person includes both direct salary and the value of equity stakes in a private company that has not yet gone public.