Hedge funds and proprietary trading firms have long relied on vast amounts of data and the workers who analyze it to beat the markets.
But the promise of generative AI is setting off a new talent war for AI talent who can level up hedge funds' quantitative strategies with a new generation of transformative technology. Firms are hiring AI experts within their trading teams and for teams dedicated to building and deploying AI tools.
Companies are using the technology to improve employee productivity, but above all, their goal is to improve investment returns. Some, like Bridgewater Associates, are developing “artificial investors” to manage client funds, while others are using the technology to create more accurate and complex models to test investment theories.
Hedge funds and proprietary trading firms — private companies that specialize in high-speed market-making and hedge-fund-style quantitative trading strategies — are happy to pay these workers, but so are companies across the economy.As a result, these workers aren't cheap, but there isn't much data on how much they might be paid in this part of the financial sector.
To examine the AI hiring practices of these secretive companies, Business Insider extracted data on H1-B and similar visa holders at hedge funds and prop trading firms from the US Bureau of Foreign Labor Certification disclosure data for 2023. We extracted data for job titles that included keywords such as “AI,” “machine learning,” and “prompt.”
The data shows the salaries that hedge funds plan to pay foreign AI workers in 2023, disclosure of which is part of their visa requirements. While the data does not include signing on bonuses, performance bonuses or stock-based compensation, it represents the best publicly available data on base salaries at these firms, which are known for handing out bonuses based on individual and fund performance.
BI also analyzed recent job advertisements from major hedge funds and proprietary trading firms to determine the salaries being paid to AI workers. New state laws, such as in New York, require job advertisements to include the salary range offered for the position, providing further insight into AI worker salaries.
Most of the companies either declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment.
Check the visa and job listing salaries below. Companies are listed alphabetically.
