OpenAI's 110 London staff each earn £2.3m a year — 58 TIMES the UK median wage

OpenAI's London arm paid its 110 employees an average of £2.3 million each last year, with £87.3 million in base salaries topped up by £167.8 million in share-based bonuses averaging £1.5 million per person. Total staff costs hit £258 million in 2025, up from £60.7 million the year before. The figures emerged from UK company accounts as OpenAI expands into a new King's Cross headquarters and pushes towards a $1.4 trillion stock market valuation.
OpenAI's UK turnover nearly tripled from £79.2 million to £293 million last year, driven by a 'significant expansion' in sales, marketing and research.
The bumper pay reflects a fierce AI talent war, with rivals such as Meta reportedly dangling multi-year packages worth hundreds of millions of dollars to poach top researchers.
