Highest Paying AI Internships, Fellowships, and Residencies in 2026

2025-12-25T10:31:01.220Z

AI giants like OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, and Google DeepMind are competing for top talent.
These companies offer huge salary packages to their best talent.
They also pay top dollar for new talent through internships, fellowships, and training.

In the race to develop AI, the humble internship is no longer so humble.

Salaries for short-term, entry-level roles in the AI field are now comparable to full-time salaries in other industries.

Executives at high-tech companies competing to develop artificial intelligence have famously offered huge salaries to top researchers and engineers in what has been described as a war for talent.

In June, Meta made a $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI. The deal is widely seen as a takeover of CEO Alexandr Wang. Google made its own move and acquired Windsurf's top talent for $2.4 billion. OpenAI Chief Technology Officer Sam Altman said Meta tried to lure employees with a $100 million contract, and Meta Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth later said OpenAI matched that effort.

Sean Thorne, managing director of executive search firm True Search, told Business Insider that base salaries for AI leaders can reach $300,000 to $400,000, even at small startups.

But while acquiring existing talent drives big spending, top AI companies are also spending big on finding new talent.

Business Insider has compiled a list of 2026's highest-paying internship, fellowship, and residency programs at OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, and Meta.

Human Safety Fellow

Illustration by ANTHROPIC, August 1, 2025. Anthropic is an American artificial intelligence (AI) (Intelligence artificielle (IA)) company founded in 2021. It develops Claude, a large family of language models, and is also known for its research in AI safety, particularly interpretability. — Anthropic offers a four-month program for AI Safety Fellows.

Riccardo Milano/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images

The Anthropic AI Safety Fellows Program is a four-month, full-time research fellowship “designed to accelerate AI safety research and develop research talent,” Anthropic says on its website.

The goal of this program is to help fellows produce public research. More than 80 percent of past classes of fellows have published papers, Anthropic said.

Participants will receive direct instruction from leading AI researchers including Jan Leike, Sam Bowman, Sara Price, Alex Tamkin, and Nina Panickssery. They will receive a weekly stipend of $3,850, plus $15,000 a month in computing funds, and access to a workspace in Berkeley or London.

Applications are being accepted until January 12, 2026 for the next cohorts starting in May and July 2026.

You can apply here.

OpenAI Residency

OpenAI Residency is a six-month program that brings participants into your organization as full-time employees and works with a research team on advanced AI projects.

The residents will be integrated into one of OpenAI's research teams, where they will work on “ambitious projects that push the boundaries of AI,” according to OpenAI's website.

Residents receive mentorship, contribute to ongoing research, and may be considered for a full-time role after completing the program. Residents receive $18,300 per month.

The character is based in San Francisco. Candidates must have strong programming skills, a solid foundation in advanced mathematics, and the ability to independently perform complex technical projects.

OpenAI said it plans to review applications and begin interviews as early as January 2026. Interviews will likely include multiple technical assessments, and residency start dates are flexible.

You can apply here.

Google Student Researcher

Google's logo seen at the company's research facility in Mountain View, California

Google is targeting US-based Ph.D. computer science student.

Carlos Barria/Reuters

Google is accepting applications for the Student Researcher Program on a rolling basis, and the application period is scheduled to last until July 17 next year.

This initiative targets US-based Ph.D. students in computer science and related fields, we offer flexible project-based research roles across teams such as Google DeepMind and Google Research.

Participants will be based in one of several locations in the United States and work on exploratory projects that “advance scientific progress across numerous research fields,” Google says on its website.

This position pays a base salary of $113,000 to $150,000, depending on location and experience.

You can apply here.

Google offers several early career opportunities, including software engineering roles designed for candidates with a PhD. enrolled in the program and tagged “Early Career.”

Meta-research scientist intern

mark zuckerberg — Mark Zuckerberg's meta has a lot of opportunities for young researchers.

Nick Cooley/Associated Press

Meta has several research internships available for periods of 12 to 24 weeks, with compensation ranging from $7,650 to more than $12,000 per month, depending on experience and location.

His research focus areas include neural rendering, natural language processing, generative modeling, and computer vision.

Browse available internships and apply here.

Meta also has the role of open recruitment for Ph.D. students in technology fields from institutions such as the University of Washington, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of California, Berkeley, and New York University's Courant Institute for Mathematical Sciences and Data Science Center.

Over the course of a year, researchers will collaborate with Meta and its universities, working part-time during the academic year and full-time during the summer holidays.

Applications for the 2026-2027 cohort will open on November 17th and close on January 9th. The program begins in fall 2026.

You can apply here.

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