In artificial intelligence, competition is no longer just about models or computing capacity, but also about human capital. Researchers in fundamental models, infrastructure engineers, specialists in distributed optimization: these structuring profiles today arbitrate between Big Tech and AI scale-ups with unprecedented negotiating power. And in this arbitrage, stock options now occupy a central place.
When Anthropic offers certain current and former employees to sell their shares on the basis of a valuation close to 350 billion dollars (around 297.5 billion euros), with an envelope of up to 5 to 6 billion dollars (4.25 to 5.1 billion euros), the operation is not only financial. The company, valued at 380 billion dollars post-money (323 billion euros) during its last round, organizes partial liquidity without going through the Stock Exchange. The securities will be bought by external investors and access is conditional on minimum seniority.
To fulfill its role of attractiveness and loyalty, equity must become monetizable
From deferred promise to tangible value
Historically, stock options were based on a single horizon: IPO or acquisition. Employees accepted risk and illiquidity in exchange for a potentially transformative promise.
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However, large AI startups remain private for longer while achieving valuations comparable to those of listed groups. The value accumulates, but it remains theoretical. In this context, secondary sales become a conversion tool.
OpenAI has structured a $6.6 billion secondary sale based on a valuation of $500 billion (approximately €425 billion). Stripe and SpaceX have also held regular liquidity windows.
These operations set a new standard, namely that private equity must offer intermediate exit mechanisms.
A decisive lever of attractiveness
Faced with giants capable of offering high salaries and immediately liquid shares, AI startups must compensate for the financial security differential. It is this secondary liquidity which reduces this asymmetry.
For a senior engineer, the question becomes rational:
– accept higher but capped fixed remuneration;
– or join a scale-up whose equity is partially monetizable at regular intervals.
By making stock options exercisable within a structured framework, startups transform a distant promise into a credible asset and the employer argument gains strength.
Loyalty and control of strategic tempo
These devices also play a stabilizing role. By conditioning access to a minimum duration of presence, companies maintain the incentive to stay. By arranging framed windows, they avoid excessive pressure for a premature IPO. Progressive liquidity makes it possible to reconcile two imperatives: retaining talent and maintaining strategic control.
In the AI ​​economy, valuation is no longer enough. The challenge now lies in the ability to convert this valuation into concrete advantage for the teams. Stock options are no longer a simple incentive lever: they structure competition between startups.
This movement now extends beyond Silicon Valley. In Europe, Alan claims 13% of its capital held by its current and former employees. Equity is not thought of as a one-off event during hiring, but as an evolving mechanism: allocation upon entry, new allocations during promotions, and above all a “refresher grants” system. Twice a year, a peer review allows you to accumulate points; beyond a threshold, a new action package is allocated. Sustainable performance, even without a change of position, is thus rewarded.
The system creates a continuous cycle between performance, strengthening of capital participation, access to secondary operations, then renewal of shareholder commitment. The objective is to encourage teams to think and act as owners of the project.
This movement is not without ripple effects. Traditional groups, also in search of these rare profiles, find themselves confronted with a growing asymmetry between fixed remuneration and potential value creation. The question is no longer theoretical: what remuneration architecture can they offer to compete with equity that has become partially liquid and strategically organized?
