“OpenAI also spends an alarming amount of money on salaries — over $700 million in 2024 before you consider stock-based compensation, a number that will also have to increase because it’s “growing” which means “hiring as many people as possible,” and it’s paying through the nose.”
Our reading, the sentence that was checked:
OpenAI's salary spending, over $700 million in 2024 before stock-based compensation, will have to increase because it is growing, which means hiring as many people as possible.
Assessment: Unresolved No deadline stated on 2026-10-29 Evidence as of
Where and when Ed Zitron wrote it
Where's Your Ed At, There Is No AI Revolution, paragraph 21.
- Said
- Source observed
- live page, full text, public
- Evidence as of
- the cutoff for this assessment
- Assessment recorded
- assessment wyea-wheres-the-money-522ce3-a1
We recorded 42 claims from this post. See every claim from this post.
The wording above is the version this site observed on 2026-10-28. The source may have been edited after 2025-02-24. This page does not claim the wording was captured then.
What the claim commits to
- Kind
- Forecast
- Deadline, as the speaker wrote it
- None stated. This site does not add one.
- Deadline state when assessed
- No deadline stated
- Deadline state on 2026-10-29
- No deadline stated (the release’s reference date)
Conditions
- before stock-based compensation (qualifier, stated by the speaker)
From the speaker
- over $700 million in 2024
- before you consider stock-based compensation
- a number that will also have to increase
- because it’s “growing”
Our interpretation
- Assess a rise in OpenAI's company-wide annual cash salary expense from its comparable 2024 baseline.
- The stock-compensation exclusion defines the metric; it is not a conditional antecedent.
- Growth and hiring are the stated explanation, rather than an explicit if-then condition.
- No deadline is stated. Do not impose a 2025 deadline.
- Headcount growth, advertised salaries, equity awards, and subsidiary payroll are insufficient by themselves to establish the company-wide annual cash salary bill.
Counts as supported if: Comparable completed-year evidence shows company-wide cash salary expense exceeding its established 2024 level, with evidence consistent with expansion of the workforce.
Counts as contradicted if: A decisive terminal event establishes that the salary bill never increased after the post. A decrease in one subsequent year alone cannot defeat this undated forecast.
Retrospective: these criteria were written after the outcome was public.
Current assessment
Did the forecast come true?
Outcome: Unresolved
The record was checked, and the evidence available by the cutoff does not settle it.
Scored on a plain reading. The speaker named no measure for this claim, so it was judged on the reading an informed reader would take, stated below under our interpretation. Both reviews had to find that reading fair.
- Evidence as of
- Deadline state when assessed
- No deadline stated
- Assessment recorded
- Policy version
- 2026-10-28.7
Rationale
Workforce growth is consistent with a rising salary bill. However, the sources reviewed do not establish comparable company-wide annual cash salary totals before and after the post. The forecast has no deadline, and no decisive event meets the early-resolution rule. It remains open.
Limitations
- Available salary evidence includes rounded secondary estimates and samples of individual wages.
- Equity compensation and subsidiary payroll cannot substitute for worldwide cash salaries.
- An observed increase would not by itself prove that growth made the increase unavoidable.
Evidence (2 items)
Context only: Epoch AI — Jaime Sevilla, Hannah Petrovic, and Anson Ho,
$700 million in employee salaries
Why it matters here: This supplies a rounded salary baseline but does not establish the stricter over-$700-million wording or a subsequent annual increase.
- Publisher
- Epoch AI — Jaime Sevilla, Hannah Petrovic, and Anson Ho
- Kind of source
- Secondary summary
- Measures
- OpenAI, Reported annual employee salary expense excluding stock compensation, USD millions, estimate, 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31
- Describes events of
- Public from
Context only: Epoch AI — Jaime Sevilla, Hannah Petrovic, and Anson Ho,
from 3,000 in mid-2025 to 4,000 by the end of 2025
Why it matters here: Workforce expansion is consistent with the stated rationale. It does not measure annual cash salary expense.
- Publisher
- Epoch AI — Jaime Sevilla, Hannah Petrovic, and Anson Ho
- Kind of source
- Secondary summary
- Describes events of
- Public from
What would settle it
A credible company-wide annual payroll comparison showing cash salaries excluding stock compensation above the verified 2024 baseline, accompanied by workforce information.
Where it was said (1)
Said once in the sources this register covers.
: Where's Your Ed At, There Is No AI Revolution
OpenAI also spends an alarming amount of money on salaries — over $700 million in 2024 before you consider stock-based compensation, a number that will also have to increase because it’s “growing” which means “hiring as many people as possible,” and it’s paying through the nose.
- Where
- paragraph 21
- Published
- 2025-02-24
- Source observed
- , live page
- Access
- full text, public
History
Assessment versions
- Assessment wyea-wheres-the-money-522ce3-a1: Current. Outcome: Unresolved. Evidence as of 2026-10-28. Public date not recorded.
Recorded events
Assessment publishedBy this site
First assessment published after both reviews and the final-text check passed.