Eleven star engineers are set to make $200M this year.💰
Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands just lost their jobs.
And they won't get it back!
Job openings for software engineers in the US are now nearly half of pre-pandemic levels.
Microsoft just announced another 9,000 layoffs, adding to the 6,000 cut in May.
Yet, for some lucky ones, pay packages have almost doubled.
💸 Median compensation for a Principal AI Researcher in Big Tech hit $5M, vs $3.5M just three years ago.
For comparison, a typical Big Tech software engineer not involved in AI, makes between $180k–$220k (base salary).
The gap is widening. And it's accelerating fast!
Recruiters estimate that only a few hundred people globally possess the skills to build cutting-edge AI models.
This is less than the number of players competing in the football Champions League!
Eleven of them were just poached by Meta last week.
The rest is evaluating their options.
OpenAI even granted employees a week off to organise one-to-ones with top performers, figuring out how to convince them to stay.
👉 Want a preview of AI's impact on the broader job market?
Start with tech.
A handful of superstars earning historically unprecedented sums,
while everyone else lives under constant threat of layoffs and AI-driven replacement.
Welcome to the economy of superstars at its peak.
