Google Offers 300 Percent Salary Hike to Retain Employee Switching to Perplexity AI Startup All Details

Some companies are spending a lot of money on those who have skills in the tech industry. An example of this came to light recently, where Google made a huge counter offer to an employee selected for a job in AI startup Perplexity AI. By huge here we mean a salary hike of 300%. Perplexity AI CEO Arvind Srinivas revealed on the Big Technology Podcast that Google promised a 300 percent salary hike to retain the employee who was part of the research team but not directly involved in AI.

CEO of Perplexity AI podcast He told how Google offered a salary hike of 300 percent to an employee selected for his startup to keep him in their company. The incident highlights how far tech giants are willing to go to keep hold of key personnel. However, it also stands in contrast to the recent wave of layoffs across the industry, which have taken place in the name of highly paid employees not being able to justify their pay.

In January 2024 alone, 32,000 jobs were cut in the tech industry, while thousands of people lost their jobs across various sectors. Google CEO Sundar Pichai also warned employees to expect further cuts, citing the need to “make tough choices” to allocate resources for strategic investments.

This creates a somewhat contradictory situation, as companies struggle to retain existing employees with aggressive offers and at the same time cut jobs. This gives rise to some questions, such as how these decisions are made, the overall sustainability of the technical workforce, and what the criteria are used to evaluate employee contributions.