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

In the tech industry, some companies are spending a lot of money on those who have skills. An example of this came to light recently, where Google gave a huge counter offer to an employee selected for a job at AI startup Perplexity AI. Here by huge 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 an employee who was part of the research team but was not directly involved in AI.

The CEO of Perplexity AI podcast reported how Google offered a 300 percent pay hike to an employee it had selected for its startup to keep him at the company. The incident highlights the lengths tech giants are willing to go to hold on to key personnel. However, it also stands in contrast to the recent wave of layoffs across the industry, which have been caused by high-paid employees not justifying their salaries.

In January 2024 alone, 32,000 jobs were cut in the tech industry, while thousands more 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 paradoxical situation as companies struggle to retain existing employees with great offers while also cutting jobs. This gives rise to questions about how these decisions are made, the overall stability of the tech workforce, and the criteria used to evaluate employee contributions.