'Zuck Poaching Effect' Pushes OpenAI To Announce $1.5 Million Bonus For All Employees—Even New Hires, Says Tech Entrepreneur

Written by Emily J. Thompson, Senior Investment Analyst

GOOG.O

280.41

USD

-2.44%

See more details

GOOG.O-2.44%

GOOGL.O-2.41%

Source: Benzinga

Updated: Aug 07 2025

5mins

Source: Benzinga

OpenAI's Employee Bonuses: OpenAI has announced $1.5 million bonuses for each employee over two years, as part of a strategy to retain talent amid fierce competition from companies like Meta, which is offering high compensation packages to attract AI researchers.
AI Industry Investment Surge: The ongoing talent war in the AI sector is fueled by significant investments, with companies like Meta and Microsoft planning to spend billions on AI infrastructure, while OpenAI's valuation is projected to rise significantly due to increased revenue and user growth.

GOOG.O

$280.410+75.718%Past 6 months

Line

Candle

YTD

Intellectia

Analyst Views on GOOG

Wall Street analysts forecast GOOG stock price to rise over the next 12 months. According to Wall Street analysts, the average 1-year price target for GOOG is 311.91 USD with a low forecast of 255.00 USD and a high forecast of 350.00 USD. However, analyst price targets are subjective and often lag stock prices, so investors should focus on the objective reasons behind analyst rating changes, which better reflect the company's fundamentals.

14 Analyst Rating

8.52% Upside

13 Buy

1 Hold

0 Sell

Strong Buy

8.52% Upside

Current: 287.430

Low

255.00

Averages

311.91

High

350.00

8.52% Upside

Current: 287.430

Low

255.00

Averages

311.91

High

350.00

Truist

Youssef Squali

Hold

maintain

$10 -> $11

2025-11-06

Reason

Truist

Youssef Squali

Price Target

$10 -> $11

2025-11-06

maintain

Hold

Reason

Truist analyst Youssef Squali raised the firm's price target on Snap (SNAP) to $11 from $10 and keeps a Hold rating on the shares. Q3 results and the Q4 outlook both show relatively in line revenue and stronger than expected AEBITDA, the analyst tells investors. New, higher margin revenue streams, such as the Perplexity deal, should be accretive to margins in 2026, but Snap "remains a share giver" to peers including Meta (META), Google (GOOGL) and Reddit (RDDT), the analyst added.

Goldman Sachs

Eric Sheridan

Buy

maintain

$288 -> $330

2025-10-31

Reason

Goldman Sachs

Eric Sheridan

Price Target

$288 -> $330

2025-10-31

maintain

Buy

Reason

Goldman Sachs analyst Eric Sheridan raised the firm's price target on Alphabet to $330 from $288 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares.

Needham

Buy

maintain

$260 -> $330

2025-10-30

Reason

Needham

Price Target

$260 -> $330

2025-10-30

maintain

Buy

Reason

Needham raised the firm's price target on Alphabet to $330 from $260 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares. The company reported "strong" Q3 as Search revenue grew 15%, Cloud grew 34%, and YouTube grew 15% y/y, the analyst tells investors in a research note. Alphabet's full-stack GenAI go-to-market gives it pricing power through differentiation, which is driving revenue upside and margin expansion, the firm added.

Evercore ISI

Outperform

maintain

$300 -> $325

2025-10-30

Reason

Evercore ISI

Price Target

$300 -> $325

2025-10-30

maintain

Outperform

Reason

Evercore ISI raised the firm's price target on Alphabet to $325 from $300 and keeps an Outperform rating on the shares. Alphabet's Q3 results were "stellar," significantly exceeding expectations across key metrics with a notable boost from AI advancements, the analyst tells investors. Alphabet, leveraging AI across its core segments to drive sustainable growth, is "proving to be a high-quality compounder," the analyst added.

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About GOOG

Alphabet Inc. is a holding company. The Company's segments include Google Services, Google Cloud, and Other Bets. The Google Services segment includes products and services such as ads, Android, Chrome, devices, Google Maps, Google Play, Search, and YouTube. The Google Cloud segment includes infrastructure and platform services, collaboration tools, and other services for enterprise customers. Its Other Bets segment is engaged in the sale of healthcare-related services and Internet services. Its Google Cloud provides enterprise-ready cloud services, including Google Cloud Platform and Google Workspace. Google Cloud Platform provides access to solutions such as artificial intelligence (AI) offerings, including its AI infrastructure, Vertex AI platform, and Gemini for Google Cloud; cybersecurity, and data and analytics. Google Workspace includes cloud-based communication and collaboration tools for enterprises, such as Calendar, Gmail, Docs, Drive, and Meet.

About the author

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Emily J. Thompson

Emily J. Thompson, a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) with 12 years in investment research, graduated with honors from the Wharton School. Specializing in industrial and technology stocks, she provides in-depth analysis for Intellectia’s earnings and market brief reports.