AI Company CHAI Offers Engineers 50% More Total Compensation in Cash

CHAI, a social AI company backed by CoreWeave and AMD Ventures, has outlined its compensation strategy for engineering recruits. The company typically offers packages valued at 1.5 times a candidate's existing total compensation, disbursed entirely in cash through salary and bonuses.

A recent offer to a Meta engineer, who previously earned $600,000 in total compensation, included a $600,000 annual base salary plus $300,000 in bonuses at CHAI. This $900,000 cash package represents a 50% increase, with the base salary alone matching the engineer's prior total compensation.

CHAI reports an annualized revenue run-rate of $120 million with a lean team of 15–20 employees. The company has raised $55 million to date and claims profitability excluding sales and marketing expenses. These figures are company-reported and unaudited.

"We want joining CHAI to be a clear step forward—for someone's work, their finances and their family," said founder and CEO William Beauchamp. He added that a small team structure provides engineers with significant responsibility and opportunities for collaborative learning, which the compensation structure aims to reflect.

The standard compensation package includes approximately 75% base salary and 25% in bonuses, which are sign-on and retention payments rather than performance-based. Employees also have the option to exchange a portion of their salary for stock options.