2026-03-03T22:14:20.598Z
One of the most outlandish stories in the tech world right now is what’s happening at Anthropic. New data from Levels.fyi shows that some of the AI startup’s employees have effectively become millionaires within about a year of joining the company.
An engineer who joined the company in late 2024 received stock options for 60,000 shares with an exercise price of $13 at a time when Anthropic was valued at about $18 billion. At that time, capital was approximately $200,000 per year on paper.
The recent stock sale valued Anthropic at nearly $350 billion. After accounting for estimated dilution and other factors, this employee currently owns approximately $4 million to $5 million in vested stock. Levels.fyi estimates that the full equity grant would typically vest in quarterly installments over four years and would likely be worth about $18 million to $20 million.
Other examples based on actual compensation packages submitted to Levels.fyi by Anthropic employees: Senior Software Engineer with approximately $1.6 million in vested stock after one year. More senior staff earn around $8 million after 18 months. And in two years, you’ll be a business operations leader with at least $9 million in revenue.
Taxes can make up a large portion of this value, especially if you live in California. Still, such results previously took five to 10 years to IPO. At Frontier AI, we’re making that happen much faster, as long as you’re hired by the right startup.
“The biggest variable in maximizing your compensation, even more than your job title, is almost always the company you work for,” said Hakeem Sibley, a data guru at Levels.fyi.
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