As China's artificial intelligence sector surges forward, the country's leading tech companies are locked in an intense battle for top talent. Firms like ByteDance and Tencent are deploying aggressive compensation strategies — lavish bonuses, massive salary hikes, and high-profile hires — to secure experts capable of building and scaling large language models (LLMs). This talent scramble underscores AI's pivotal role in China's technological ambitions, with demand far outstripping supply and driving the market to overheat.
ByteDance Leads with Bold Compensation Overhaul
TikTok owner ByteDance has taken decisive steps to retain and attract elite AI engineers. For the 2025 performance cycle, the company expanded its year-end bonus pool by 35% compared to the previous year and boosted its budget for salary adjustments by 150%.
Additionally, ByteDance raised both the minimum and maximum compensation levels across all job grades, aiming to offer globally competitive packages.
These moves come as ByteDance seeks to fortify its AI capabilities amid rapid growth in its Doubao LLM ecosystem. The adjustments reflect a broader strategy to prevent talent drain to rivals, ensuring the company can sustain innovation in areas like distributed training and model deployment.
Tencent's Aggressive Poaching and Strategic Hires
In a landmark move, Tencent recruited Yao Shunyu, a former OpenAI researcher and Princeton PhD graduate, as its chief AI scientist in late 2025. Yao, who reports directly to company president Martin Lau, oversees LLM development and a newly established AI infrastructure department.
This high-profile acquisition highlights Tencent's push to bolster its Hunyuan AI model. The company has also restructured its AI operations, creating dedicated units for infrastructure, data, and large-model R&D. Fresh PhD graduates in AI fields are receiving 50% premiums over industry standards, further intensifying the competition.
Soaring Demand: Explosive Growth in AI Job Postings
The talent war is fueled by unprecedented demand. According to data from Maimai, China's premier professional networking platform, the index of new AI-related job postings skyrocketed 543% year-on-year from January to October 2025—nearly triple the 197.8% growth seen in the same period of 2024.
While absolute figures are not disclosed, this surge indicates a massive expansion in openings for roles in LLM training, inference systems, and AI infrastructure.
Experts in building scalable distributed learning systems and high-performance inference pipelines are particularly scarce. A small team of such specialists can accelerate — or bottleneck—entire product lines, making them invaluable. Average monthly salaries for AI roles reached around 61,764 yuan ($8,755), significantly higher than the broader new-economy sector.
Broader industry participation amplifies the frenzy: Baidu, Alibaba, and Huawei have launched large-scale recruitment drives, with focuses on campus hiring and internships. Tencent alone plans 10,000 internships in 2025, 60% tech-focused, while projections suggest China could face a 4 million AI talent shortfall by 2030 despite rapid educational expansions.
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National Stakes in AI Dominance
China's government and industry view AI as a strategic priority, with massive investments in domestic models and infrastructure to counter US restrictions on advanced chips. The talent war extends beyond Big Tech—startups and sectors like autonomous vehicles and robotics are offering premiums up to three times the national average.
As 2025 closes, this overheated market shows no signs of cooling. With global competitors like Meta and OpenAI also vying for talent, Chinese firms' lavish incentives signal a long-term commitment to AI leadership. For engineers skilled in cutting-edge LLM systems, the opportunities — and payoffs — have never been greater.
