Tech Job in US: A little-known artificial intelligence startup is making waves in Silicon Valley and beyond by offering base salaries as high as $500,000 to top technical talent on H1B visa. This comes amid the global competition for AI expertise.
Mira Murati’s thinking machines lab in spotlight
The startup in question is Thinking Machines Lab, founded by former OpenAI Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati. Though the company has not publicly launched any products, it has already gained attention for offering unusually high pay packages in its quest to attract elite machine learning experts.
According to a Business Insider report, recent US federal filings reveal that Thinking Machines Lab has offered base salaries of $450,000 to $500,000 to at least four technical staff members. One of them, identified as a “co-founder/machine learning specialist,” earns $450,000 annually, while another draws a full half-million dollar salary. These figures do not include stock options, equity, or signing bonuses suggesting that the total compensation may be significantly higher.
What do we know about the hiring strategy?
Interestingly, these sky-high salaries were made public through mandatory H-1B visa filings with the US Department of Labor, which companies must submit when hiring non-US residents. This means the individuals receiving such generous packages are foreign nationals working in the US under skilled worker visas.
The filings reportedly cover the first quarter of 2025, even before Murati closed a mammoth $2 billion funding round that valued the six-month-old startup at an eye-watering $10 billion. This suggests Thinking Machines Lab had already committed to big spending well before securing its blockbuster valuation.
AI salaries soar
Thinking Machines Lab’s aggressive hiring strategy reflects a broader trend among top-tier AI companies scrambling to secure scarce technical talent. Industry giants like OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Anthropic, and Meta are locked in a race not only to build next-generation AI systems but also to recruit and retain the brightest minds in the field.
Last month, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman publicly accused Meta of trying to lure away researchers with signing bonuses worth up to $100 million, a claim Meta’s newly hired researchers, including Lucas Beyer, denied.
Yet the competition remains cut-throat. Over the past few weeks, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly hired at least eight former OpenAI staff to join his company’s newly formed superintelligence division.