New Delhi: A report by The Wall Street Journal indicates that OpenAI is terminating a long-time policy that mandated employees to remain in the company at least six months before equity could start to vest. It affects the employees throughout the firm and is yet another move towards reorganising the employee compensation at the AI company.

This step is based on a previous announcement in April, where OpenAI shortened the vesting wait for new employees by six months, as compared to 12 months in the industry. The recent move to eliminate the minimum tenure requirement altogether is the next move by the company, which is an indication of a more lenient attitude due to the high competition in the area of AI talent.

Equity rules relaxed to support new employees

OpenAI informed workers that equity will now become vested without a required wait period, individuals knowledgeable about the issue informed the Journal. The shift is done to relieve anxiety among new employees who might be concerned about missing out stock benefits in case of departure or premature lay off.

OpenAI head of applications Fidji Simo announced to employees last week that the change in policy was meant to motivate taking risks. She reported that the employees must be given an opportunity to concentrate on their work, without the fear of missing their first share distribution.

According to the report, xAI, the AI startup of Elon Musk, had previously made a similar change earlier this summer. With the high rate of competition between the market leaders in the AI industry, businesses are moving to the tune of adjusting pay systems to get and retain the best in the market.