According to Business Insider, the AI talent wars have escalated to include interns and residents, with companies paying short-term, entry-level roles salaries that rival full-time positions in other industries. In the race for established talent, Meta invested $14.3 billion in Scale AI, largely seen as an acquihire of CEO Alexandr Wang, while Google spent $2.4 billion to acquire talent from Windsurf. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman claimed Meta tried to poach his employees with $100 million signing bonuses, an effort Meta’s CTO said OpenAI later matched. Even at startups, AI leaders can command base pay between $300,000 and $400,000. Now, top firms like OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, and Meta are deploying significant funds to discover new talent through high-paying 2026 internship and residency programs.
The New Intern Economy
Here’s the thing: when we talk about an intern “making good money,” we’re not talking about a few bucks above minimum wage. We’re talking about compensation packages that likely exceed $10,000 a month, sometimes significantly more. That’s a life-changing sum for a student. But it’s a calculated bet for these companies. The cost of missing out on the next brilliant researcher who might crack a key problem in AI alignment or model efficiency is, in their eyes, astronomically higher than a few hundred thousand dollars in salary. So they’re basically buying lottery tickets, but the tickets are people, and the jackpot is a breakthrough that could define the next decade of tech.
Why The Frenzy Now?
Look, the core AI research talent pool is tiny. There are only so many people who truly understand the cutting edge of large language models or reinforcement learning. The big salaries for seniors have been going on for years. But this push for interns signals a deeper, more desperate long-game. It’s not just about hiring today’s experts; it’s about identifying and locking down tomorrow’s experts before they even graduate. By getting them into your ecosystem early—through an OpenAI Residency or a fellowship at Anthropic—you create loyalty, familiarity with your tech stack, and a pipeline. You’re not just filling a role for a summer; you’re conducting a three-month audition for a future multi-million dollar employee.
The Broader Impact
This warping of the labor market has wild side effects. First, it completely drains talent from other critical tech fields and even academia. Why grind through a PhD in systems or databases when you can make a fortune in AI? Second, it creates a two-tier system within tech itself. An intern at a non-AI team at a big company might make a fraction of what their peer down the hall in the AI lab is pulling in. And finally, it puts immense pressure on the interns themselves. That huge paycheck comes with sky-high expectations. It’s no longer a learning experience; it’s a high-stakes trial by fire. Can you imagine the pressure to perform?
How To Get In (If You’re Curious)
So, what does it take? Obviously, a stellar academic record in computer science, math, or stats is table stakes. But these programs, like the Google Student Researcher role or Meta’s AI PhD internships, are looking for demonstrated research ability. That means published papers, significant open-source contributions, or winning entries in major competitions (think Kaggle). They want proof you can move the needle. I think the real question is: is this sustainable? Or is it a bubble fueled by venture capital and existential FOMO? Only time will tell. But for now, if you’ve got the skills, it’s arguably the most lucrative time in history to be a student.
