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

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Cite

editor, R. B. U. t. (2026, October 14). OpenAI’s London staff receive average of £2.3m per person annually. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/oct/14/openai-london-staff-earnings-2million-per-person

Dated from the outlet's own feed. Check the original for its byline.

The Guardian · collected 2026-10-14 · by Robert Booth UK technology editor

Quick Summary

OpenAI’s London staff received an average annual compensation of £2.3 million last year as the company invests heavily in the global AI race. The figures, based on OpenAI UK Ltd accounts, show 110 employees shared £87 million in salaries and £168 million in shares, reflecting a significant increase from the previous year’s average of £1.1 million. This report highlights the discrepancy between OpenAI’s compensation packages and the median UK salary, as well as the company's expanding role in London, positioning it as an AI research hub with high stakes in talent acquisition and technological development amidst growing concerns over AI safety and regulation.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-14, using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the same event (that is the story summary below).

AI analysis runs on qwen2.5:14b, locally

Story summary

As of October 14, 2026, The Guardian reports that OpenAI's London staff received an average of £2.3m per person annually in 2025, reflecting a significant increase from the previous year's average package of £1.1m. The company's UK subsidiary, OpenAI UK Ltd, paid out a total of £87 million in salaries and £168 million in shares to its 110 employees, positioning OpenAI for a potential stock market listing with an estimated valuation of about $1tn. This compensation is 58 times the median UK full-time employee earnings, according to data from the Office for National Statistics. The high salaries are attributed to a talent war in the AI industry, where companies like Meta offered multi-year packages worth hundreds of millions of dollars. OpenAI's London office is crucial as it competes with San Francisco as a major hub for AI research and development.

Written for “Openai London Salaries” on 2026-10-14, grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.
Why this leaning score
The model judged this article politically coded and scored it -0.25, but every quote it verified points right, so the score is not published.
Written under an earlier scoring contract, which gave a paragraph rather than checkable quotes. Re-analysing this article replaces it.
Leaning score withheld for article 80300: score contradicts its own evidence · logged 2026-10-14

Story

📰 Openai London Salaries
Technology · 1 article(s) covering the same event.

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Claims extracted
15
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
13%
2 of 15 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
withheld
no quote in the article backed the model's score
Publisher signals
67/100
The Guardian's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
1
Technology
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-10-14 · how these are computed

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Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

The Guardian · 1837 article(s) · 5 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 5 correction(s)

Who wrote this

Robert Booth UK technology editor
9 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 An OpenAI worker on an average package could expect to take home about £1,000 an hour in salary and equity before tax. But there is understood to be a wide discrepancy between the highest and lowest earners.
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🔮 Emma signed up after a summer of feeling rising alarm at the catastrophic risks of AI, first when a swarm of OpenAI agents escaped their training “sandbox”, cheated, deceived and conspired to hack into the Hugging Face website and then as Jacob Coxon, an Anthropic researcher, quit with an apocalyptic warning that superintelligent AI “could kill us all by the end of the decade”.
🔮 She shimmered in Hollywood’s silent movie era and lit up the first talkies – now Greta Garbo may be about to star in cinema’s new AI age.
🔮 They did not directly address complaints the system caused stress and anxiety and felt “remorseless”, but said its introduction was communicated in advance and teachers will have access to the data the AI collects.
🔮 The Labour peer and former deputy leader will operate alongside Palantir’s UK and Europe chief executive, Louis Mosley, as the company attempts to fend off pressure on Burnham’s government to axe its £330m NHS contract.
2026-09-18 · assertive framing · Former Labour deputy leader Tom Watson joins Palantir
Also by Robert Booth UK technology editor
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 9 articles by Robert Booth UK technology editor →

Topics

ChatGPT London OpenAI OpenAI UK Ltd San Francisco

Subjects

OpenAI ORG · 6× London GPE · 5× OpenAI UK Ltd ORG · 2× San Francisco GPE · 2× Cambridge GPE · 1× ChatGPT ORG · 1× Meta ORG · 1× Premier League ORG · 1× Westminster GPE · 1× the Office for National Statistics ORG · 1×

Narrative

The earnings were a big jump on the previous year, when the average pay and equity package was £1.1m. Booming AI salaries have already had a significant effect on housing prices in San Francisco, where the average one-bedroom property now rents for $4,400 per month, a figure that is up more than 25% from last year and is nearly three times the US average.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-10-14
🔮 An OpenAI worker on an average package could expect to take home about £1,000 an hour in salary and equity before tax. But there is understood to be a wide discrepancy between the highest and lowest earners.
2026-10-14 · The Guardian
OpenAI’s London staff receive average of £2.3m per person annually · assertive framing

Claims (15 extracted, 2 hedged)

OpenAI’s London staff each received £2,318,181 on average last year, as the ChatGPT-maker poured Premier League football salaries into its bid to dominate the global AI race. asserted
maker → receive → race
Accounts for OpenAI UK Ltd, which is based in Westminster but is opening a new HQ in London’s King’s Cross area, showed that 110 staff shared £87m in salaries and £168m in shares in the company, which is aiming to list on the stock market at a valuation of about $1tn. asserted
which → base → 1tn
The earnings amount to 58 times the median UK full-time employee earnings, according to the Office for National Statistics. uncertain
earnings → amount → Statistics
An OpenAI worker on an average package could expect to take home about £1,000 an hour in salary and equity before tax. But there is understood to be a wide discrepancy between the highest and lowest earners. uncertain
worker → expect → earners
The biggest compensation packages are reserved for AI researchers who help build the San Francisco company’s cutting-edge models such as Astra. asserted
who → reserve → Astra
The figures relate to 2025, when there was a talent war and OpenAI’s rival, Meta, was reported to be offering multi-year packages running into several hundred million dollars. asserted
rival → relate → dollars
OpenAI’s London base reflects the UK capital’s status as an important hub for AI talent with some of the brightest machine-learning experts and AI researchers coming out of universities such as Cambridge. asserted
some → reflect → Cambridge
Google DeepMind is also based in King’s Cross. asserted
DeepMind → base → Cross
The company declined to comment on the figures, which come after a series of AI safety crises involving its models. asserted
which → decline → models
This summer AI agents, under training, escaped and hacked into an unrelated company website, Hugging Face, while this month one of its safety leaders quit, saying that its culture was broken and that AI firms were not “being nearly careful enough” about developing the technology. asserted
firms → escape → technology
OpenAI’s London office has been established as its largest international research hub but it also houses a government affairs team and sales and marketing functions – responsible for selling licences to companies and organisations. asserted
it → establish → companies
George Osborne, the former Conservative chancellor of the exchequer, joined last December as the company’s head for countries. asserted
Osborne → join → countries
The earnings were a big jump on the previous year, when the average pay and equity package was £1.1m. Booming AI salaries have already had a significant effect on housing prices in San Francisco, where the average one-bedroom property now rents for $4,400 per month, a figure that is up more than 25% from last year and is nearly three times the US average. asserted
that → boom → month
Landlords have been trying to capitalise on the boom, particularly in areas closest to the offices of the biggest AI companies including OpenAI and Anthropic. asserted
Landlords → try → OpenAI
In London, OpenAI UK Ltd recorded a more than trebling of its turnover in 2025 to £293m, on which it made a £20.3m profit. asserted
it → record → profit
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