{"text":[[{"start":10.65,"text":"ByteDance is offering special stock to employees of its AI lab to fend off poaching from rivals as China’s tech talent war heats up."}],[{"start":19.200000000000003,"text":"The Beijing-based owner of TikTok is offering low-priced stock options linked to its Seed AI division to employees of the unit, according to four people with knowledge of the incentive. It is the first time ByteDance has issued shares tied to a specific business unit."}],[{"start":34.35,"text":"The structure gives staff exposure to Seed’s growth without dilution from ByteDance’s other business lines. The move is meant to keep staff at the company after rivals including Tencent began poaching members of its top research team."}],[{"start":48.2,"text":"Like in Silicon Valley, a fierce talent war is under way in China, particularly for engineers specialising in infrastructure and data labelling, areas viewed as critical to improving AI model efficiency amid constrained computing resources."}],[{"start":62.150000000000006,"text":"ByteDance, which aggressively recruited for Seed after establishing the lab in 2023, is widely regarded as having one of the highest concentrations of elite AI researchers in China. The company made early and large bets on AI infrastructure, becoming Nvidia’s largest Chinese customer."}],[{"start":80.05000000000001,"text":"Tencent conceded late last year that it had fallen behind competitors in the development of large language models and has intensified its hiring push in recent months, including targeting ByteDance staff."}],[{"start":91.25000000000001,"text":"Recent high-profile departures include Xiao Xuefeng, a senior member of Seed’s visual AI platform, and Zhang Chi, an infrastructure specialist, who both left for Tencent. The recruitment drive has been led by Yao Shunyu, a prominent AI researcher who joined Tencent from OpenAI last year."}],[{"start":109.60000000000002,"text":"To stem the tide, ByteDance offered Seed employees around the world the option to buy so-called Doubao stock at $13 a piece this month, according to the people with knowledge of the incentive."}],[{"start":121.90000000000002,"text":"Their value has risen almost 30 per cent since the end of last year, when the units were priced at about $10, the people added, reflecting faster commercialisation of ByteDance’s LLMs in the cloud business and better model performance. The valuation is also low compared with those of rival AI labs in China, implying significant potential gains for employees."}],[{"start":144.20000000000002,"text":"The compensation method is controversial because it can create internal division, discourage collaboration and make it harder for staff to move within the company."}],[{"start":153.55,"text":"While ByteDance has built one of China’s largest AI research operations, several insiders said the organisation had become overly bureaucratic, with responsibilities fragmented across teams. Seed has about 2,000 employees, including core researchers, infrastructure engineers, a data labelling team and translators."}],[{"start":173.10000000000002,"text":"Tencent’s AI operation, by contrast, is smaller and offers researchers greater scope over projects and decision making, said the insiders. The company has sought to attract Seed employees with promises of more lucrative pay packages and broader managerial responsibilities."}],[{"start":189.45000000000002,"text":"DeepSeek is also contending with fierce talent competition. The Hangzhou-based lab is fundraising for its first round with investors, in part to retain top researchers, the FT previously reported."}],[{"start":201.55,"text":"DeepSeek gained recognition last year for its powerful R1 model built with limited chip resources, but the breakthrough has made it vulnerable to deep-pocketed rivals. ByteDance poached several members of its infrastructure team last year, according to a person with knowledge of the hires."}],[{"start":216.65,"text":"ByteDance, DeepSeek and Tencent did not respond to requests for comment."}],[{"start":227.9,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1779791089_3923.mp3"}