AI engineer pay hits $300K

The median pay for AI engineers in the US was $290,000 in April — about $100K more than what non-AI software engineers made, according to data from compensation data and career services platform Levels.fyi. That amount has been fluctuating in the past few years but generally going up, hitting over $300,000 in March according to data reported by employees themselves.

“Everyone trying to step into this game makes it very competitive for this limited pool of talent,” Levels.fyi founder Zuhayeer Musa told Sherwood. “They’re starting to outbid each other and competition is just going up.”

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$100B

Jon Keegan16h

Each day of the Musk v. Altman trial in Oakland, California, more details of Microsoft’s complicated $13 billion partnership emerge from the courtroom.

Yesterday, Microsoft executive Michael Wetter said that the company has spent over $100 billion on the OpenAI partnership. A big chunk of that came from the fact that Microsoft needed to build the costly infrastructure before OpenAI could use it, according to Wetter.

Microsoft’s investment looks like it was worth it, as OpenAI is currently valued at $852 billion, making Microsoft’s stake worth about $135 billion. OpenAI is planning for an IPO later this year.

Jon Keegan

20h

Anthropic in talks for funding at a valuation as high as $950 billion, which would make it bigger than OpenAI

An improbable, parabolic rise in valuation has rocketed Anthropic past the presumed leader, OpenAI.

Rani Molla21h

Alphabet’s Waymo to add 200 square miles of coverage area to existing markets

Waymo, a subsidiary of Alphabet, announced today that it’s expanding its coverage area by 200 square miles in several existing markets, including Miami, the San Francisco Bay Area, Houston, Austin, and Atlanta. That will bring its total coverage area to more than 1,400 square miles. The autonomous car service is currently offering public rides in 11 markets, after expanding to Nashville last month.

25%

Rani Molla21h

AI companies are amping up their spending in Washington as they push for federal approval for more data centers and industry-friendly rules regarding their use of copyrighted material, among other asks, The New York Times reports, citing data from nonprofit watchdog Public Citizen. 25% of currently registered federal lobbyists are now involved in pushing AI interests. That’s more than double what it was — 11% — in 2023. Meta, Nvidia, and Alphabet spent $47.8 million combined last year, up 22% from 2024.

FINAL BOSS

22h

SUBSCRIPTION TRUCKING

Rani Molla

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