Leading AI companies are competing for the world's top talent, doling out huge pay packages. They are also paying top dollar for undiscovered talent.
iStock; Rebecca Zisser/BI
AI giants like OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, and Google DeepMind are competing for top talent.
These companies are offering huge pay packages for the best and brightest.
They are also paying top dollar for new talent through internships, fellowships, and residencies.
In the race to develop AI, the humble internship is not so humble anymore.
The pay for short-term, entry-level roles in AI now rivals full-time salaries in other industries.
Tech heavyweights competing to develop artificial intelligence have famously offered top researchers and engineers enormous pay packages in what's been described as the talent wars.
In June, Meta spent $14.3 billion on an investment in Scale AI — a deal widely seen as an acquihire of CEO Alexandr Wang. Google made its own move, acquiring Windsurf's top talent for $2.4 billion. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said that Meta tried to lure employees away with $100 million signing bonuses, an effort that Meta Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth said OpenAI later matched.
Even at smaller startups, AI leaders can command between $300,000 and $400,000 in base pay, Shawn Thorne, managing director at executive search firm True Search, told Business Insider.
While landing established talent is driving big spending, however, the top AI companies are also throwing significant sums at discovering new talent.
Business Insider compiled a list of some of the top-paying internships, fellowships, and residency programs in 2026 at OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, and Meta.
Anthropic Safety Fellow
RICCARDO MILANI/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images
The Anthropic AI Safety Fellows Program is a four-month, full-time research fellowship "designed to accelerate AI safety research and foster research talent," Anthropic says on its website.
The goal of the program is to help fellows produce public research. Over 80% of fellows in past classes have produced papers, Anthropic said.
Participants will receive direct mentorship from leading AI researchers, including Jan Leike, Sam Bowman, Sara Price, Alex Tamkin, and Nina Panickssery. They'll receive a weekly stipend of $3,850, and another $15,000 a month for compute funding, as well as workspace access in Berkeley or London.
Applications for the next cohorts — which begin in May and July 2026 — are open until January 12, 2026.
The OpenAI Residency is a six-month program that brings participants into the organization as full-time employees to work alongside research teams on advanced AI projects.
Residents are integrated into one of OpenAI's research teams, where they work on "ambitious projects that push the boundaries of AI," OpenAI says on its website.
Residents receive mentorship, contribute to ongoing research, and may be considered for full-time roles after the program. Residents receive $18,300 a month.
The role is based in San Francisco. Candidates are expected to have strong programming skills, a solid foundation in advanced mathematics, and the ability to execute complex technical projects independently.
OpenAI said that it expects to review applications and begin interviewing as early as January 2026. Interviews are likely to involve multiple technical assessments, and residency start dates are flexible.
Google is accepting applications for its Student Researcher Program on a rolling basis, with the window expected to remain open until July 17 next year.
The initiative targets US-based Ph.D. students in computer science and related fields, offering flexible, project-based research roles across teams, including Google DeepMind and Google Research.
Participants will be based in one of several locations in the US and will work on exploratory projects "that drive scientific advancement across a multitude of research areas," Google says on its website.
The position pays a base salary between $113,000 and $150,000, depending on location and experience.
Google offers several early-career opportunities, including software engineering roles designed for candidates completing their Ph.D. programs and marked with the "Early Career" tag.
Meta Research Scientist InternMeta CEO Mark Zuckerberg
Nic Coury/AP
Meta has several research internships open for 12- to 24-week stints with compensation ranging from $7,650 to over $12,000 a month, depending on experience and location.
Research focus areas include neural rendering, natural language processing, generative modeling, and computer vision.
You can browse the available internships and apply here.
Meta also has open roles for visiting Ph.D. students in technical fields from institutions like the University of Washington, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of California, Berkeley, or New York University's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences or Center for Data Science.
Over the course of a year, researchers will collaborate with Meta and their university, working part-time during the academic school year and full-time over the summer break.
Applications for the 2026-2027 cohort opened on November 17 and will close on January 9. The program begins in the fall of 2026.