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ByteDance has a talent problem, and it’s throwing money at it. The TikTok parent company launched a special stock option program for its Seed AI division, the internal team responsible for building its large language models, designed specifically to keep engineers from walking out the door and into the arms of competitors.
The 18-month program, which began in September 2025, grants monthly stock options ranging from CNY 90,000 to CNY 130,000 per employee, roughly $12,594 to $18,180 depending on performance. In English: ByteDance is paying its best AI people what amounts to a second salary just to stick around.
The full retention playbook
Stock options are just one piece of the strategy. ByteDance also increased its 2025 bonus pool by 35%, a significant bump that signals how seriously the company views the retention crisis in AI.
Perhaps more telling is the restructuring of equity vesting schedules. The company shortened the vesting period for Seed AI staff from four years to three. Faster vesting means employees hit their full equity payout sooner, which reduces the golden handcuff effect but also makes the near-term compensation more competitive against rivals dangling immediate payouts.
The Seed AI division itself is relatively young. Established in 2023, the team has grown rapidly and is now expanding internationally. ByteDance is actively recruiting for nearly 100 new AI roles in the United States, a move that puts it in direct competition with OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Meta, and the constellation of well-funded AI startups all fishing from the same talent pool.
A $23 billion bet on AI infrastructure
The retention spending makes more sense when you zoom out and look at ByteDance’s broader AI ambitions. The company plans to spend over $23 billion, approximately RMB 160 billion, on AI-related capital expenditures in 2026.
Over half of that budget is allocated to semiconductor investments. Rather than relying entirely on external chip suppliers, an increasingly fraught proposition given ongoing US-China trade tensions and export controls, ByteDance is clearly investing in building out its own hardware capabilities.
The monthly stock option grants are more unusual than standard compensation practices. Most companies issue equity on an annual or quarterly basis. Monthly distributions suggest ByteDance is trying to create a steady drip of financial incentive that makes any given month a bad time to leave.
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