Day: July 31, 2025

The AI talent wars are burning hot, and the tech salaries being dished out for top talent are even hotter.

Thanks to data from federal filings, we have a window into tech companies’ salary ranges during a heated moment in Silicon Valley’s talent wars.

The data comes from filings that companies must submit to the Labor Department when hiring foreign workers through the H-1B visa program, which allows them to bring in specialized workers annually through a lottery system.

Since companies rarely disclose salary data, the data offers a rare glimpse into what candidates are fetching in this job market.

The numbers reflect only annual base salaries, excluding the stock options, signing bonuses, and other perks that can often double or triple total compensation packages.

Business Insider explored how much money the biggest tech companies, such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, and Meta, and startups like OpenAI and Thinking Machines Lab, are paying software engineers, product managers, and other employees.

• I went to Tesla’s X Takeover event. It wasn’t busy, though Tesla’s core fan base remains passionate.
• The event featured Tesla’s latest innovations, including the Cybercab and Optimus robot.
• Tesla’s vehicle engineering chief spoke onstage, saying, “I hope we’re still here” in five years.

On Saturday, I attended X Takeover, a gathering for fans of Tesla, electric vehicles, and SpaceX.

The Tesla Owners Club of Silicon Valley ran the event. I’m not a member, but I drive a Tesla Model 3 Performance, and my house has a Powerwall battery that’s fed by solar panels.

I love my Model 3, and I’ve been fascinated by the Cybertruck ever since the daring, divisive design came out. Given the debate over Tesla CEO Elon Musk‘s political activities this year and the hit to sales, I went along to the fanfest to see how the Tesla faithful are holding up.

I arrived at around 1:30 pm at the San Mateo County Event Center. I expected the parking lot to be full, but I found it was about half empty. Near the entrance, Tesla and Lucid offered attendees short test drives of new electric vehicles. A small handful of attendees tried this out, but there were no lines (perhaps because most people there already knew EVs so well?). When I walked into the event, it didn’t feel that packed. I estimate maybe 1,000 people attended in total, although it could have been more.

When Lars Moravy, Tesla’s vice president of vehicle engineering, got onstage at around 3 pm, a lot of people gathered to watch, but the audience and VIP area still had some empty seats.

‘Don’t bet against Elon’

However, passion abounded among those who showed up. They brought radically modified Tesla cars and Cybertrucks in wild colors. Someone had turned a Model 3 into a convertible (yes, I want one of those, please, Tesla). Another owner had installed a cannon on the back of their Cybertruck. I’m not sure if it was real, and I didn’t ask.

Original Tesla Roadsters in beautiful condition were parked next to a giant Tesla Semi truck. Kids played games, including coloring cardboard Cybertruck models with crayons. Families snapped selfies.

Someone wore a “Don’t bet against Elon” T-shirt. Another sported a shirt with Tesla’s Austin robotaxi service area emblazoned on the front. (It’s shaped a certain way, if you’re wondering.)

I sensed that Tesla’s core fan base remains loyal and believes in the company and its leaders, possibly even more intensely than before the recent political backlash against Musk. However, it felt like others in Silicon Valley, including those who drive an EV to help the planet, have moved on and may not want to attend an event like X Takeover right now.

Cybercabs and Cybertrucks

One highlight for me was seeing the Cybercab close up, parked next to an Optimus robot. Several people crowded around snapping photos. The Cybercab looked cooler in person, especially the stubby, angular front nose and the satiny gold paint job.

Still, one Tesla fan standing next to me wondered aloud why the company put only two seats in a vehicle that will carry people around via a rideshare service. What if the whole family needs to go somewhere? he wondered. Two-person rides are probably more common, we mused.

Another Tesla fan, called Eurone, stood by the Cybercab with his girlfriend, taking photos. I asked him about robotaxi tests and the company’s efforts to get this up and running in San Francisco. Eurone said he’d signed up to get an invitation in Austin and in San Francisco. If he gets one, he plans to fly from LA to either city to experience a ride.

“It has to work,” he said of Tesla’s autonomous vehicle efforts. Eurone mentioned that he bought Tesla stock about two years ago at around $140 a share. The shares have more than doubled since then, but he hopes for more gains and thinks they’re undervalued still.

A couple from Washington state had driven their Cybertruck down to the Silicon Valley event and set up a tent and camping system on the vehicle. They let me climb up into the tent — it was cozy in there! I asked the wife what she thought of the robotaxi tests. She said she’d still be cautious about getting in a robotaxi without a test driver at the wheel.

I chatted with a visitor from Texas who was looking at the Cybercab up close. He said he’d taken a robotaxi in Austin and was impressed by the smooth ride. Another driver cut him off during the test, and the robotaxi braked hard but smoothly. He compared this to his own Model Y with full self-driving (FSD), which he said sometimes brakes more abruptly in similar situations.

I also met a couple from Houston who’d driven their bright orange Cybertruck all the way to this event in Silicon Valley. The truck also had a camping tent system on top, and the woman was cooking a cheeseburger on the back. They said they use FSD all the time and drove most of the way from Houston to San Mateo in FSD with no problems.

Tesla engineering chief Lars Moravy speaks

When Tesla vehicle engineering chief Moravy started his talk onstage, a group of guys stood up and chanted, “Lars! Lars! Lars!”

Moravy was asked about the intense “anti-Tesla environment” over the last few months and how he and his engineering teams weathered the storm, and how it affected the Tesla brand.

“I was like, ‘hey, let’s meet hate with love,’ and I know a lot of you guys went out with doughnuts and did that, and I really appreciate that,” Moravy said. “Having such a strong community that you can fall back on when you have tough times is super humbling, and it’s awesome to know that we have all of you guys here to do that for us and make us feel like we’re actually doing the right things.”

That elicited rounds of applause from the audience.

Moravy said many engineers put their heads down and just worked harder and longer. The first half of the year was intense for these employees because Tesla was launching the updated Model Y globally, he said.

“For the most part, that’s how my team handled it and kind of pushed through it. And you know, it’s nice to see some positive news again,” he said, citing the opening of Tesla’s diner and supercharger location in LA recently. “It was just a cool environment to see everyone there and the positivity around it.

The last car for human drivers

Moravy also described the company’s “unboxed” manufacturing process, central to Tesla’s coming Cybercab robotaxi service. It assembles vehicle modules separately and joins them later in the process. This improves line speed and reduces factory footprint dramatically, he said.

The executive also said that Tesla designed the Cybercab for efficiency, durability, and low per-mile operating costs, with replaceable plastic body panels to simplify repairs. Moravy shared that Tesla conducted its first Cybercab crash test, which passed successfully.

He spotlighted progress on the Tesla Semi, too, which is targeting production in 2026. Of all Tesla’s projects right now, he said he’s most excited about this product, calling it a no-brainer for fleets due to the expected low total cost of ownership.

Meanwhile, he said Tesla is building Optimus, its humanoid robot, with micron-level precision to scale manufacturing to thousands of units a week, showcasing the company’s ambition beyond vehicles.

He described Tesla’s new Roadster as an effort to design the last car for human drivers. This swan song has to be incredible, so the company has been taking its time to ensure that the capabilities are top-notch before releasing it, Moravy said.

‘I hope we’re still here’

At the end, Moravy was asked what he hopes Tesla has achieved in five years’ time that would make him proud as an engineering leader.

“If you’d asked me this question five years ago, I would have said ‘man, I hope we’re still here,'” Moravy replied.

“And so now I’m saying the same thing: ‘Man, I hope we’re still here,” he added, to laughter from the audience. “Because we take big swings and sometimes that risk, you know, it can come with a lot of downside.”

“And I think we are in a big-swing moment with autonomy, with robotics and with Optimus, and with Semi,” Moravy said. “I hope those all work out.”

Sign up for BI’s Tech Memo newsletter here. Reach out to me via email at abarr@businessinsider.com.

• Apple CEO Tim Cook has said the tech giant hires from “all walks of life.”
• Apple lags behind in the AI wars, and Meta poached some of its top researchers.
• Federal filings reveal how much Apple pays machine learning staff and other key roles.

As the race for AI supremacy consumes Big Tech, Apple lags behind many of its peers.

Four of Apple’s top AI researchers have defected to Meta in the past month, Bloomberg reported, and Apple has upped pay for researchers within its Apple Foundation Models (AFM) group, Bloomberg reported — another symptom of the ongoing talent wars.

Apple unveiled its Apple Intelligence AI platform last year. At this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference, Craig Federighi, senior vice president of software engineering, said Apple’s work on Siri needed “more time.”

That said, Apple is hiring for hundreds of roles in machine learning and AI, and nabbing a job at the company remains a dream for many.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a 2023 interview with the singer Dua Lipa that the company hires from “all walks of life,” and he said he prizes qualities like collaboration, curiosity, and creativity.

“Fundamentally, we all believe that one plus one equals three,” Cook said in the interview. “Your idea plus my idea is better than the individual ideas on their own.”

In addition to competitive salaries, Apple offers various benefits, from stock grants to discounts on its products.

While Apple and other Big Tech firms don’t disclose salary information publicly, the federal filings they make when hiring outside the US can hint at pay ranges for certain roles. That said, the data only refers to foreign hires and doesn’t include equity or other benefits employees can receive on top of their base pay.

The Apple salary filings show a machine learning engineer or researcher can take home as much as $312,200, while a human interface designer can earn as much as $468,500.

Apple’s data scientists can earn $322,400 in base pay, while software development engineers can pocket as much as $378,700.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Here’s what Apple pays across other key roles, based on applications from the second quarter of 2025.

Engineering roles

CPU Implementation Engineering: $103,164 to $264,200

Design for Test Engineer: $131,352 to $293,800

Design Verification: $103,164 to $312,200

Electronics Engineer: $108,160 to $264,200

Engineering Project/Program Manager: $105,550 to $301,400

FE Engineering: $125,694 to $312,200

Hardware Development: $124,942 to $293,800

Hardware Systems Engineering: $125,495 to $378,700

Manufacturing Quality: $142,293 to $227,600

Module Design Engineer: $108,796 to $329,600

Physical Design Engineer: $101,982 to $341,200

Production Services Engineer: $122,800 to $293,800

Reliability Engineering: $128,300 to $264,200

RF/Analog/Mixed Signal Engineering: $131,352 to $312,200

Silicon Validation Engineering: $103,164 to $329,600

System Product Design Engineer: $103,164 to $312,200

Tools and Automation Engineer: $105,602 to $293,800

Wireless Systems Engineering: $128,300 to $312,200

Wireless Systems Validation Engineer: $126,672 to $312,200

Data roles

Data Engineer: $105,602 to $234,700

Data Scientist: $105,550 to $322,400

AI roles

Machine Learning: $126,880 to $329,600

Machine Learning Engineer: $143,100 to $312,200

Machine Learning Research: $114,100 to $312,200

Software development roles

AR/VR Software Development: $129,805 to $312,200

Human Interface Designer: $135,400 to $468,500

Software Developer: $132,267 to $264,200

Software Development Engineer: $132,267 to $378,700

Software Development Engineer – Applications: $132,267 to $378,700

Software Development Engineer – Data: $135,400 to $329,600

Software Development Engineer – Firmware: $126,880 to $312,200

Software Development Engineer – Test: $94,640 to $329,600

Software Development Engineering Manager: $166,691 to $378,700

Software Engineering Applications: $103,164 to $378,700

Software Engineering Applications Manager: $171,400 to $378,700

Software Engineering Systems: $126,880 to $329,600

Other types of roles

Professional Services Consultant: $100,200 to $258,700

Strategic Sourcing Manager: $110,600 to $286,400

Supply Demand Planning: $100,200 to $209,900

• A deadly shooting in a Midtown skyscraper hit the real estate sector especially hard.
• The industry is mourning two lives and assessing whether more could be done to protect tenants.
• Features being considered include “security centers” where staff can lock elevators or entrances.

The deadly shooting in a Midtown skyscraper on Monday evening dealt an especially painful blow to New York City’s commercial real estate community.

Two of the four victims worked in real estate: Wesley Lepatner, the 43-year-old CEO of a large Blackstone real estate fund, and Julia Hyman, a young associate at Rudin Management, a commercial landlord that owns the tower where the shooting took place.

The setting — a notable skyscraper along Park Avenue — also hit close to home. As a premier office building in one of the top office districts in the nation, the site of the violence has raised unsettling questions among real estate professionals about how to better protect tenants. While no one can fully defend against someone bent on violence (Monday’s gunman appeared prepared to die), conversations are already underway in an industry now mourning two of its own.

“As you can imagine, it’s been a busy 48 hours with clients assessing their security,” said Paul Schmick, the chief security and technology officer at Alliance Building Services, a New York City-based firm. Schmick said that about two dozen landlords have reached out and that he had just had a conversation “with one of the largest Class-A office owners in the city” to talk about the security implications of the shooting.

Schmick said some large landlords are now planning to accelerate the installation of security centers in their office buildings. These are secure rooms manned by security staff who can monitor a building’s public spaces using surveillance cameras and who have the power to control elevator systems and turnstiles and alert police if there is an attack.

“Some buildings have these rooms, but more landlords are considering them now,” Schmick said.

Schmick suggested the attack could also accelerate the use of artificial intelligence in building operations. AI can be coupled with closed-circuit surveillance systems to recognize weapons instantly or even threatening behavior.

“I would agree that this is an isolated act of violence, but there still is the sense now that this is something we have to prepare for,” Schmick said. “Everyone is saying we have to look at the details here, and what else can we do to help mitigate this from happening again.”

An industry in mourning

While mass shootings have become familiar to the public in recent decades, Monday’s attack brought the terrifying scene to some of the nation’s top companies, notably Blackstone, a $1.2 trillion asset manager, and the National Football League, which NYC mayor Eric Adams said was the target of the gunman.

On Monday at around 6:30 p.m., the lone gunman walked into the lobby of 345 Park Avenue with a semiautomatic rifle and opened fire, according to the New York Police Department. In addition to the real estate executives, the shooter also killed an NYPD officer hired to protect the property and a security guard. The gunman died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Real estate executives who spoke to Business Insider described Monday’s tragedy as the industry’s biggest blow in decades — perhaps since the September 11 attacks that brought down the Twin Towers.

Mary Ann Tighe, the New York CEO of the real estate services firm, said it was “hard to get through the day with our hearts so heavy.”

“Crazy bad things shouldn’t happen to anyone, but it stuns when you know people involved and you also know how special they are,” she said.

“At the moment, I think I’m just kind of dealing with the tragedy and not thinking about how does this relate to that, or this or that,” said Jon Mechanic, the chairman of the law firm Fried Frank’s real estate department.

“I’m sure that there are conversations that are going on, and we’ll see what people decide to do,” Mechanic said of security questions swirling through the industry.

The Real Estate Board of New York, the industry’s main lobbying group and professional association, whose office is just across the street from 345 Park Avenue, issued a statement on the event: “We extend our full support to the real estate community — building owners, managers, staff, and tenants — who were directly affected and continue to navigate the aftermath with strength and resilience.”

“As a community committed to the well-being of all New Yorkers, we stand in solidarity during this difficult time and remain dedicated to supporting a city where everyone can live and work without fear,” the statement said.

• The Education Department is back to tracking default rates for America’s recent college graduates.
• For-profit schools have the most borrowers behind on payments and are at risk of losing federal financial aid.
• Millions more borrowers are expected to default this year following the resumption of collections.

Your college might be on President Donald Trump’s watch list.

Last week, the Department of Education released new data on student-loan borrowers‘ nonpayment rates, or the percentage of borrowers who have entered repayment since January 2020 with student loans that were more than 90 days past due when the data was collected in May 2025.

The data was a warning sign for for-profit schools: It found that 30% of borrowers who attended for-profit institutions were behind on their payments, compared to 16% of borrowers at public schools and 14% of borrowers at private schools. If nonpayment rates do not improve by next year, schools on that list risk losing federal student aid, including student loans and Pell Grants.

Cosmetology and barber schools were high on the nonpayment list: Networks Barber College in Illinois and Washington Barber College in Arkansas had 67% nonpayment rates, and Foster’s Cosmetology and Barber College in Mississippi had a 64% rate.

It’s not just for-profit colleges: Independence Community College, a public Kansas school, has a 49% nonpayment rate, and Carolina Christian College, a private North Carolina school, has a 61% rate.

Since 2020, the department has not been collecting data on the number of graduates who are in delinquency or default on their student loans because of an ongoing pandemic pause on collections. It also meant that the department was not penalizing colleges for high default rates by cutting off their access to federal student aid, a practice that was in place prior to the pandemic.

However, Trump’s administration restarted collections on defaulted student loans in May, meaning that the tracking is back on. Colleges could lose aid if they exceed 30% of the cohort default rate — the percentage of borrowers who default on their debt — for three consecutive years, or 40% for one year.

Preston Cooper, a senior fellow at the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute, said that with collections having resumed on defaulted student loans, he said that the rate will likely continue to surge.

“The cohort default rate has been essentially a non-factor for the last five years,” Cooper said. “But now it’s entirely possible that it’s going to come back with a vengeance.”

Cooper said it could take at least a year for schools on the list to actually lose federal student aid because it takes time for defaults to reflect in the data the department collects, and schools can also attempt to appeal. However, that time can go by quickly, and he said that it’s in schools’ best interests to start helping borrowers with repayment before it’s too late.

“Schools do have quite a bit of runway here,” Cooper said. “I do think that they cannot plead ignorance. They have plenty of lead time to come up with a plan to avoid the worst consequences of triggering the cohort default rates. And if they don’t, I would say that’s on them.”

An incoming default wave

Before the latest nonpayment data was released, the Department of Education in May urged all colleges that receive federal aid to remind students of their options to repay their student loans.

“For too long, insufficient transparency and accountability structures have allowed U.S. universities to saddle students with enormous debt loads without paying enough attention to whether their own graduates are truly prepared to succeed in the labor market,” Linda McMahon, Trump’s education secretary, said in a statement.

Carolyn Fast, director of higher education policy at the progressive think tank The Century Foundation, told BI that enforcing accountability will be difficult. The Department of Education estimated that 10 million borrowers could default this summer after the collections restart, and ongoing efforts to dismantle the department and fire staff mean that borrowers will have limited resources to get help determining their repayment options.

Gutting the department also means that oversight over for-profit schools, many of which have shut down or faced litigation over the past years over accusations of predatory behavior that loaded students up with unaffordable debt, will be minimal.

“There are a lot of programs out there that are getting a lot of federal money, that are just not doing a good job for students,” Fast said.

The nonpayment data doesn’t mean that every school on the list will lose federal aid. Fast said that schools will likely bolster outreach to students to mitigate the problem by reestablishing contact with graduates and informing them of existing repayment plans.

Trump’s latest spending law eliminated existing income-driven repayment plans and replaced them with two, less generous options that will go into effect in July 2026. This means that borrowers will have to navigate a changing repayment system while working to avoid default.

“It’s just a flag that these are institutions who have very, very high rates of student loan delinquencies, and that is an indicator that they could have a serious problem down the road,” Fast said.