"$1 Million Starting Salary? It's Common Now"... Wall Street and Silicon Valley in Fierce Battle for 'Math Geniuses'

Quant Firms and AI Companies Vie for Talent

"Value of Recruits Soared After the Rise of OpenAI"

Quantitative trading firms on Wall Street in the United States and artificial intelligence (AI) companies in Silicon Valley are fiercely competing to recruit talented mathematics majors in their 20s.

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"A $1 Million Salary Is No Longer Surprising"... The Value of Math Geniuses Trained by OpenAI Soars

According to Yonhap News Agency citing The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on July 31, competition for an extremely small pool of elite mathematics graduates between quant trading firms such as Jane Street and Optiver, and cutting-edge AI developers like OpenAI and Anthropic, has caused starting salaries to soar rapidly.

Generally, the entry-level compensation packages at top-tier AI and quant firms range from $350,000 to $500,000 (approximately 500 million to 710 million won).

There are also numerous cases where employees receive even higher salaries. Even if the initial salary is relatively low, rapid wage increases often mean new hires surpass the $1 million annual salary mark (about 1.42 billion won) within just a few years of joining the company.

Matt Stabile, founder of the New York-based headhunting firm Stabile Search, said, "Just a few years ago, it was rare for entry-level employees to earn a seven-figure salary (over $1 million). Now, even a $1 million salary doesn’t make anyone bat an eyelash." He noted that the industry can be divided into before and after OpenAI’s rise, and that the surge in competition for math prodigies' paychecks really took off as OpenAI began to attract attention.

Kevin Cassata, a quantitative finance headhunter, compared the current recruitment landscape to a "pro athlete draft." According to Cassata, portfolio managers are offering highly competitive compensation that exceeds existing salary standards in order to secure talented summer interns early and prevent them from joining rival firms. In rare cases, Cassata said, the first-year compensation for new hires can even reach as high as $1.5 million (about 2.1 billion won).

This dramatic increase in value stems from the high technical similarity between the expertise needed to train AI large language models (LLMs) and the machine learning algorithms used in quantitative finance.

In addition, recent quant funds have posted record-breaking performances, amassing vast capital that plays a significant role in this trend. For example, Jane Street, a leading name in quantitative finance, recorded $10.3 billion in net income in just the first quarter. With a relatively small workforce, the firm's results were nearly double those of major investment banks like Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley.

Wall Street sign in New York, USA. Photo by Reuters and Yonhap News Agency

Companies Expand Sponsorships for Math Competitions and Internships... Concerns Rise Over Drain of Academic Talent

To secure top talent, companies are employing various strategies such as sponsoring high school mathematics competitions, hosting chess and cube tournaments, and organizing campus recruitment events, in an effort to attract young mathematicians who are accustomed to 'nerd culture.'

Optiver, which currently hires 70% of its new staff through summer internships, plans to further expand this program so that, in the future, all new hires are selected through internships. This approach will allow the company to lock in talent more than a year before students graduate.

Academia has voiced concerns that, due to this compensation competition, more and more talented individuals who should have remained in university research or pure academic fields are instead being drawn to industry positions by the lure of high salaries.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.