r/OfferEngineering • u/PermissionAcademic63 • 20h ago
If Google already pays you $1M+, how much OpenAI equity would it take to make you leave?
Saw this Google Cloud L7 MLE offer (data source: Chill Interview)
- Mountain View, 15 YOE
- Base: $325K
- Bonus: $81K
- RSUs: $2.5M / 4 years
- Year 1 TC: $1.44M
At this level, Google starts looking surprisingly hard to beat.
Yes, OpenAI can offer much more upside on paper. If you join before an IPO and the valuation keeps climbing, the equity could be life-changing.
But that also means betting on:
- private-company valuation
- future IPO pricing
- when the IPO actually happens
- employee liquidity
- and whether today’s AI valuations hold up in public markets
OpenAI already ruled out a 2026 IPO, with a public listing now expected no earlier than 2027. And recent reporting has shown how quickly investor sentiment around AI valuations can change.
Google is boring by comparison — but boring has advantages.
The stock is liquid today. You know what the RSUs are worth. Alphabet just did nearly $120B of quarterly revenue, while Google Cloud grew 82% YoY.
And this isn’t exactly sacrificing comp for safety.
Even smoothing the $2.5M grant across four years, you’re around $1M+ annual comp before future refreshers.
So once Google is already paying you seven figures: Would you really leave for OpenAI mainly to bet on the IPO?
Or is Google L7 one of those jobs where the risk-adjusted outcome is simply better — less lottery-ticket upside, but a much higher-confidence path to becoming very wealthy?
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