OpenAI has approved a special retention program that will award sizeable bonuses to about 1,000 engineers and researchers, with individual payouts ranging from hundreds of thousands to several million dollars. The move, disclosed to staff after the release of the company’s GPT-5 model, is designed to stem defections amid an industry-wide bidding war for artificial-intelligence expertise. Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman said in a CNBC interview that OpenAI will continue to prioritise growth and heavy investment in training and computing capacity even if it postpones profitability. Altman indicated the privately held company’s annual recurring revenue is on course to surpass $20 billion and confirmed discussions over a secondary share sale that could value the business at about $500 billion. “As long as the models keep improving, we’re willing to run the loss for quite a while,” he said. OpenAI’s spending stance underscores the escalating competition for AI specialists. Altman described the current hunt for talent as the most intense of his career, a view echoed by recruiters who see finance and China’s largest technology companies escalating their hiring campaigns. The scramble is influencing university enrolments and forcing companies across sectors to raise compensation packages to secure scarce expertise.