ByteDance offers 130,000 monthly options to retain AI talent

ByteDance is issuing division-specific stock options worth up to 130,000 shares per month to its Seed AI researchers, the first time the TikTok parent has tied equity to a single business unit.

ByteDance is granting its Seed AI division employees between 90,000 and 130,000 stock options per month, vesting over 18 months, in an effort to prevent rivals from poaching its top researchers.

"This is the first time ByteDance has issued shares tied to a specific business division, allowing employees to participate in Seed's growth without dilution from other units," a person with knowledge of the matter told the Financial Times.

The equity program carries an internal valuation of $5 billion, below broader market estimates of ByteDance's worth. The monthly grant structure creates a rolling retention mechanism — employees who leave forfeit unvested options. The Seed division, established in 2023, is responsible for ByteDance's large language models and generative AI products including Doubao and Seedance.

The retention push comes as ByteDance plans $23 billion in AI capital expenditure for 2026, up from RMB 150 billion in 2025, with more than half earmarked for advanced semiconductor development. Competitors including Tencent and DeepSeek have stepped up recruitment of ByteDance's AI researchers, intensifying a talent war that is driving up compensation costs across China's AI sector.

Rather than a single lump-sum equity package, ByteDance distributes options on a rolling monthly basis with an 18-month vesting window, creating a sustained incentive for researchers to remain with the company. The approach mirrors retention strategies used by US tech giants facing similar talent competition.

ByteDance plans to hire approximately 100 AI professionals in the US by February 2026, signaling its ambition to expand its AI research footprint beyond China. The company has already benefited from talent moving in the opposite direction — a DeepSeek researcher named Guo reportedly joined ByteDance's Seed team, illustrating the two-way flow of talent that these equity programs are designed to both capitalize on and defend against.

The broader context is a Chinese AI sector where talent poaching has become increasingly aggressive. Tencent has begun recruiting members of ByteDance's top research teams, while DeepSeek has emerged as a competitor in both model development and talent acquisition. The escalating competition is pushing up labor costs and forcing companies to offer increasingly creative compensation packages. Tencent shares traded 0.5 percent lower in Hong Kong on Wednesday.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.