Chinese firms Bytedance and Tencent reportedly offer massive 150% pay increases and 35% bonuses to entice AI talent — salaries and increases also expected to balloon in 2026

Chinese tech giants ByteDance and Tencent are offering significant pay increases and bonuses to attract AI talent, with ByteDance increasing its budget for bonuses by 35% and allocating 150% more for future salary hikes. Tencent is reportedly luring senior staff from competitors with double their current salaries. Despite Meta offering substantial bonuses, OpenAI CEO mentioned that none of his employees have accepted the offers. Tencent successfully hired a former OpenAI researcher as its chief AI scientist. The increasing competitiveness in the AI job market is leading to concerns about layoffs in the tech sector and potential disruptions in other professional fields due to AI adoption.