Key Takeaways
- Anthropic is successfully recruiting top AI talent from competitors like OpenAI and Google DeepMind.
- Researchers and engineers are reportedly drawn to Anthropic’s strong emphasis on AI safety and its promising coding tools.
- The company’s earlier-stage status offers the potential for more significant equity gains, adding to its appeal.
- Anthropic also boasts a higher employee retention rate compared to OpenAI.
The AI startup Anthropic is becoming a significant magnet for top-tier researchers and engineers, drawing talent away from industry giants OpenAI and Google’s DeepMind. This trend highlights a shifting landscape in the highly competitive AI sector.
According to a recent report from venture capital firm SignalFire, based on LinkedIn data, an OpenAI engineer is eight times more likely to join Anthropic than the other way around. The pull is even stronger from DeepMind, where the ratio is reportedly 11 to 1 in Anthropic’s favor, as Business Insider noted.
SignalFire suggests that Anthropic’s allure stems from a combination of factors. Its strong stance on AI safety, advanced technical capabilities, and its position as a younger startup are all helping it attract sought-after professionals.
This talent migration includes high-profile figures. Anthropic itself was founded by a group of former OpenAI employees, and it has continued to poach top leaders, including individuals who co-founded OpenAI.
A significant draw for some is Anthropic’s dedicated focus on AI safety. For instance, Jan Leike, who co-led OpenAI’s superalignment team, moved to Anthropic in 2024. He stated that at OpenAI, “safety culture and processes have taken a backseat to shiny products.” He now co-leads Anthropic’s alignment team.
OpenAI cofounder John Schulman also reportedly joined Anthropic after leaving OpenAI, seeking to deepen his focus on AI alignment, according to the article. Durk Kingma, another OpenAI cofounder who also worked at DeepMind, has joined Anthropic as well.
Anthropic has also attracted key staff from DeepMind. Neil Housby, a senior staff research scientist at DeepMind, was hired to establish Anthropic’s new office in Zurich. Research scientist Nicholas Carlini also moved to Anthropic this spring after seven years at Google, writing that “the people at Anthropic actually care about the kinds of safety concerns I care about, and will let me work on them.”
The SignalFire report also points to the growing popularity of Anthropic’s AI assistant, Claude, among developers as a contributing factor. “Engineers often gravitate toward companies whose products they admire and use,” the report stated. This comes even as OpenAI’s ChatGPT remains a popular coding tool.
Furthermore, Anthropic demonstrates strong employee retention, with an 80% rate, compared to OpenAI’s 67%, SignalFire found. DeepMind’s retention rate was noted at 78%, close behind Anthropic.
Both Anthropic and OpenAI are experiencing rapid growth, with Anthropic listing over 200 open positions and OpenAI nearly 330 on their respective careers pages at the time of the report.
Anthropic’s status as a relatively younger company also plays a role. Founded in 2021 and valued at $61.5 billion, it presents a different opportunity compared to OpenAI, which has existed since 2015 and is valued at $300 billion, or the long-public Google.
Zuhayeer Musa, cofounder of engineer compensation platform Levels.fyi, suggested that the prospect of early equity can be more appealing at an earlier-stage company. “People may see much more future upside at Anthropic than joining OpenAI, even though growth is quite strong at both,” Musa said.
Asher Bantock, SignalFire’s head of research, also mentioned to Business Insider that there might be fewer Anthropic veterans looking to move elsewhere in the first place.
Anthropic declined to comment on these trends. OpenAI and Google reportedly did not respond to requests for comment.
