# Chinese AI firms hire Silicon Valley engineers to compete for U.S. talent

> Original title: Chinese AI firms want Silicon Valley’s top minds. Poaching them won’t be easy

- Source: Rest of World
- Published: 2026-11-09T08:30:00.000Z
- Bad Influence: https://badinfluence.news/items/mh0scni8daacg6h2vb2xlqcs3
- Original: https://restofworld.org/2026/chinese-ai-labs-hire-silicon-valley-engineers-openai-anthropic/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=feeds

## Summary

Chinese AI companies MiniMax and Moonshot AI are recruiting engineers in Silicon Valley and Seattle, including about 16 MiniMax openings in San Francisco. ByteDance's Seed reportedly offers competing offers 1.5 times higher to researchers with OpenAI or Anthropic offers, though Chinese firms still lag far behind U.S. labs on pay. Experts say the Chinese companies' pay gap, with MiniMax paying about $203,000 per employee in 2025, makes recruiting top talent difficult.