OpenAI, Anthropic Push AI Intern Pay Above 5,000 Yuan a Day

The race for artificial-intelligence talent is reaching internship programs as companies seek researchers capable of training large models, improving reasoning systems and addressing AI safety. OpenAI and Anthropic are offering compensation far above conventional corporate internships, along with access to scarce computing resources. The packages show how leading labs are using internships as an early recruitment channel for students who could become core researchers in a highly constrained global talent pool.

As of Aug. 17, 2026, recent reports said selected internships at OpenAI and Anthropic paid more than 5,000 yuan ($700) a day and included computing benefits for research work. At 22 working days a month, that rate would exceed 110,000 yuan. Kimi, the assistant developed by Chinese AI startup Moonshot AI, ranked only fourth in the reported pay comparison, underscoring the widening compensation gap between elite AI research roles and ordinary internships.