Maybe tokens really will become the fourth pillar of engineering compensation. But engineers might want to hold the line before embracing this as a straightforward win.

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Jensen Huang's suggestion at GTC that engineers should receive AI tokens worth roughly half their base salary has sparked debate about whether compute budgets represent a genuine new pillar of engineering compensation or a clever way to inflate package value without increasing cash or equity. Token consumption has exploded with the rise of agentic AI, and internal leaderboards tracking token usage are emerging at companies like Meta and OpenAI. Critics warn that token budgets don't vest, don't appreciate, and don't carry forward in salary negotiations — and that large compute allotments come with implicit pressure to produce at superhuman rates, potentially threatening headcount as token spend approaches salary levels.

Are AI tokens the new signing bonus or just a cost of doing business?

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