Subj : OpenAI's record comp 💰, Cybercab production starts 🚗, software engineering in 2026 👨‍💻 To : All From : TLDR Date : Wed Dec 31 2025 11:22 am --OgTMzzV2 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable OpenAI's average stock-based compensation is about $1.5 million per emplo= yee. The company's equity awards are inflating its heavy operating loss= es=C2=A0=E2=80=8C=C2=A0=E2=80=8C=C2=A0=E2=80=8C=C2=A0=E2=80=8C=C2=A0= =E2=80=8C=C2=A0=E2=80=8C=C2=A0=E2=80=8C=C2=A0=E2=80=8C=C2=A0=E2=80=8C=C2= =A0=E2=80=8C=C2=A0=E2=80=8C=C2=A0=E2=80=8C=C2=A0=E2=80=8C=C2=A0=E2=80=8C= =C2=A0=E2=80=8C=C2=A0=E2=80=8C=C2=A0=E2=80=8C=C2=A0=E2=80=8C=C2=A0=E2=80= =8C=C2=A0=E2=80=8C=C2=A0=E2=80=8C=C2=A0=E2=80=8C=C2=A0=E2=80=8C=C2=A0= =E2=80=8C=C2=A0=E2=80=8C=C2=A0=E2=80=8C=C2=A0=C2=A0=E2=80=8C=C2=A0=E2=80= =8C=C2=A0=E2=80=8C=C2=A0=E2=80=8C=C2=A0=E2=80=8C=C2=A0=E2=80=8C=C2=A0= =E2=80=8C=C2=A0=E2=80=8C=C2=A0=E2=80=8C=C2=A0=E2=80=8C=C2=A0=E2=80=8C=C2= =A0=E2=80=8C=C2=A0=E2=80=8C=C2=A0=E2=80=8C=C2=A0=E2=80=8C=C2=A0=E2=80=8C= =C2=A0=E2=80=8C=C2=A0=E2=80=8C=C2=A0=E2=80=8C=C2=A0=E2=80=8C=C2=A0=E2=80= =8C=C2=A0=E2=80=8C=C2=A0=E2=80=8C=C2=A0=E2=80=8C=C2=A0=E2=80=8C=C2=A0= =E2=80=8C=C2=A0 Sign Up [1] |Advertise [2]|View Online [3]=20 = =09=09TLDR=20 TLDR 2025-12-31 =F0=9F=93=B1=20 BIG TECH & STARTUP= S OPENAI IS PAYING EMPLOYEES MORE THAN ANY MAJOR TECH STARTUP IN HI= STORY (3 MINUTE READ) [4]=20 OpenAI's average stock-based compensation = for its roughly 4,000 employees is about $1.5 million per employee. The c= ompany's equity awards, aimed at helping it keep its lead in the AI race,= are inflating its heavy operating losses and diluting existing shareho= lders. OpenAI recently announced the discontinuation of a policy that req= uired employees to work at the company for at least six months before the= ir equity vests. This could lead to further compensation increases.=20 = SOFTBANK HAS FULLY FUNDED $40 BILLION INVESTMENT IN OPENAI (3 MINUTE = READ) [5]=20 Softbank sent over the final amount to complete its $40 bi= llion investment in OpenAI last week. The company's stake in OpenAI is no= w around 11%. Softbank has been betting big on technology and AI compan= ies. It recently agreed to pay $4 billion for data center investment firm= DigitalBridge to strengthen its AI push.=20 =F0=9F=9A=80=20 SCIENCE = & FUTURISTIC TECHNOLOGY TESLA SHARES EPIC 2025 RECAP VIDEO, CONFIRMS = START OF CYBERCAB PRODUCTION (2 MINUTE READ) [6]=20 Tesla has release= d a year-in-review video for 2025 that recaps major achievements for the = company. The montage celebrated the company's progress on EVs, energy, an= d Robotaxi development. It also confirmed that the production of the Cybe= rcab has started. The video can be viewed in the article.=20 MEET A U= S START-UP TRYING TO BREAK CHINA'S RARE-EARTH MONOPOLY (10 MINUTE READ) [= 7]=20 There is too little money to be made in rare earth to be of much= interest to mining giants, so the challenge of reestablishing a domest= ic industry in the US has fallen to small companies. Metal prices have ri= sen in recent months as China has restricted exports in response to US ta= riffs. It will be difficult for local startups to compete as China's grip= on the industry is tight, and it is known to sell rare-earth metals for = less than it costs to produce them. The biggest question is whether the U= S government will continue to subsidize the domestic industry, and at wha= t level.=20 =F0=9F=92=BB=20 PROGRAMMING, DESIGN & DATA SCIENCE = THE EFFICIENCY PARADOX: WHY MAKING SOFTWARE EASIER TO WRITE MEANS WE'LL W= RITE EXPONENTIALLY MORE (6 MINUTE READ) [8]=20 Efficiency improvements = reveal latent demand that was previously uneconomic to address. The patte= rn is consistent throughout history. We are about to see an increase in k= nowledge work output of several orders of magnitude. This will likely rev= eal that humanity has been massively under-investing in knowledge work be= cause it was too expensive.=20 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING IN 2026 (5 MINUTE= READ) [9]=20 The primary impact of AI tooling so far is that the margi= nal cost of producing code has gone down significantly. However, producin= g code is only part of the job, so the bottlenecks for engineering time w= ill shift elsewhere. The software engineering field seems poised to be = more mechanized, but more productive as a result. Most of the effects of = the mindset shift that has been accelerating for the last few months have= yet to be fully realized.=20 =F0=9F=8E=81=20 MISCELLANEOUS 202= 5 LETTER (72 MINUTE READ) [10]=20 Progress is a smooth trend that obscu= res jagged details. History is a record of thousands of years of stasis b= efore hundreds of years of growth. There hasn't been any constant normal = trend ever, so no one should expect AI to be the same. Nothing is truly i= nevitable, but it would be strange if progress stopped tomorrow.=20 F= IVE TAKES TO END 2025 (7 MINUTE READ) [11]=20 A lot of the assumptions = across the tech industry were seriously put to the test this year. This p= ost takes a look at some of the things that happened to see what the futu= re may bring. It covers OpenAI's business, Google's dominance in AI, Alan= Dye's role at Apple, software on-demand, and what Apple needs to do to w= in next year.=20 =E2=9A=A1=20 QUICK LINKS WHEN THE LINE STOPS G= OING UP (11 MINUTE READ) [12]=20 It's easy to make progress when you st= art doing something, but that will plateau over time, and it can be hard = to come to terms with the change.=20 10 IDEAS FOR 2026 (3 MINUTE READ= ) [13]=20 10 ideas to consider in the coming year.=20 BALANCE OF PO= WER (25 MINUTE READ) [14]=20 As big business, big government, and big m= ob get stronger, they can no longer avoid frequently interacting.=20 = TECH STARTUPS ARE HANDING OUT FREE NICOTINE POUCHES TO BOOST PRODUCTIVITY= (7 MINUTE READ) [15]=20 Companies like Palantir are giving employees f= ree nicotine products through vending machines.=20 TWO YEARS AFTER LE= AVING GOOGLE: THE TRUTH ABOUT ENTREPRENEURSHIP (10 MINUTE READ) [16]=20 = Entrepreneurship is hard, but it gives you a type of freedom that is = difficult to give up.=20 ADVICE FOR GENERALISTS WHO WANT TO JOIN STARTU= PS (10 MINUTE READ) [17]=20 Find a way to prove that you can identify= useful work before you are even hired by the company.=20 Love TLDR? T= ell your friends and get rewards! Share your referral link below with= friends to get free TLDR swag!=20 https://refer.tldr.tech/66662a80/ [1= 8]=20 =09=09 Track your referrals here. [19]=20 Want to advertise in = TLDR? =F0=9F=93=B0 If your company is interested in reaching an audie= nce of tech executives, decision-makers and engineers, you may want to AD= VERTISE WITH US [20].=20 Want to work at TLDR? =F0=9F=92=BC APPL= Y HERE [21], CREATE YOUR OWN ROLE [22] or send a friend's resume to jobs@= tldr.tech and get $1k if we hire them! TLDR is one of INC.'S BEST BOOTSTR= APPED BUSINESSES [23] of 2025.=20 If you have any comments or feedback,= just respond to this email!=20 Thanks for reading,=20 Dan Ni [24] & Ste= phen Flanders [25]=20 Manage your subscriptions [26] to our other newsl= etters on tech, startups, and programming. Or if TLDR isn't for you, plea= se unsubscribe [27].=20 =20 Links: ------ [1] https://tldr.tech= /signup?utm_source=3Dtldr [2] https://advertise.tldr.tech/?utm_source=3Dt= ldr&utm_medium=3Dnewsletter&utm_campaign=3Dadvertisetopnav [3] https://a.= tldrnewsletter.com/web-version?ep=3D1&lc=3D265280dc-d4e0-11f0-a661-1b9fa34a= 893d&p=3Dadf532a6-e628-11f0-9cdb-edbe0e8da0f5&pt=3Dcampaign&t=3D1767180179&= s=3D8dba5bc765a6156e4d3964fb923bedfe83e5792a5fc12102de8a0f78f833e338 [4] = https://links.tldrnewsletter.com/IeUE58 [5] https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/= 30/softbank-openai-investment.html?utm_source=3Dtldrnewsletter [6] https:= //www.teslarati.com/tesla-shares-epic-2025-recap-video-confirms-cybercab-pr= oduction-start/?utm_source=3Dtldrnewsletter [7] https://links.tldrnewslet= ter.com/nLuP2D [8] https://addyosmani.com/blog/the-efficiency-paradox/?ut= m_source=3Dtldrnewsletter [9] https://benjamincongdon.me/blog/2025/12/29/= Software-Engineering-in-2026/?utm_source=3Dtldrnewsletter [10] https://zh= engdongwang.com/2025/12/30/2025-letter.html?utm_source=3Dtldrnewsletter [= 11] https://parkerortolani.blog/2025/12/30/five-takes-to-end.html?utm_sourc= e=3Dtldrnewsletter [12] https://www.coryzue.com/writing/the-line/?utm_sou= rce=3Dtldrnewsletter [13] https://shreyasdoshi.substack.com/p/10-ideas-fo= r-2026?utm_source=3Dtldrnewsletter [14] https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/= 2025/12/30/balance_of_power.html?utm_source=3Dtldrnewsletter [15] https:/= /links.tldrnewsletter.com/fXZ02x [16] https://links.tldrnewsletter.com/5Y= 8Yt2 [17] https://links.tldrnewsletter.com/FQAnfB [18] https://refer.tl= dr.tech/66662a80/ [19] https://hub.sparklp.co/sub_e87ba9c7d7c0/1 [20] h= ttps://advertise.tldr.tech/?utm_source=3Dtldr&utm_medium=3Dnewsletter&utm_c= ampaign=3Dadvertisecta [21] https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/tldr.tech [22] htt= ps://jobs.ashbyhq.com/tldr.tech/c227b917-a6a4-40ce-8950-d3e165357871 [23]= https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7401699691039830016/= [24] https://twitter.com/tldrdan [25] https://twitter.com/SteveFlander= s22 [26] https://tldr.tech/tech/manage?email=3Dtldrnewsletter%40synchro.n= et [27] https://a.tldrnewsletter.com/unsubscribe?ep=3D1&l=3Dcfa2d55a-b7be= -11e8-a3c9-06b79b628af2&lc=3D265280dc-d4e0-11f0-a661-1b9fa34a893d&p=3Dadf53= 2a6-e628-11f0-9cdb-edbe0e8da0f5&pt=3Dcampaign&pv=3D4&spa=3D1767178872&t=3D1= 767180179&s=3D3c194cd2679dc370f13e7d61f75b1c7114fa2176cc78e7361f81b9c14f755= dd7 --OgTMzzV2 Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable TLDR
OpenAI= 9;s average stock-based compensation is about $1.5 million per employee. Th= e company's equity awards are inflating its heavy operating losses&nbs= p;=E2=80=8C =E2=80=8C =E2=80=8C =E2=80=8C =E2=80=8C&nbs= p;=E2=80=8C =E2=80=8C =E2=80=8C =E2=80=8C =E2=80=8C&nbs= p;=E2=80=8C =E2=80=8C =E2=80=8C =E2=80=8C =E2=80=8C&nbs= p;=E2=80=8C =E2=80=8C =E2=80=8C =E2=80=8C =E2=80=8C&nbs= p;=E2=80=8C =E2=80=8C =E2=80=8C =E2=80=8C =E2=80=8C&nbs= p;=E2=80=8C  =E2=80=8C =E2=80=8C =E2=80=8C =E2=80= =8C =E2=80=8C =E2=80=8C =E2=80=8C =E2=80=8C =E2=80= =8C =E2=80=8C =E2=80=8C =E2=80=8C =E2=80=8C =E2=80= =8C =E2=80=8C =E2=80=8C =E2=80=8C =E2=80=8C =E2=80= =8C =E2=80=8C =E2=80=8C =E2=80=8C =E2=80=8C =E2=80= =8C =E2=80=8C =E2=80=8C 

TLDR

TLDR 2025-12-31

=F0=9F= =93=B1

Big Tech & Startups

OpenAI Is Paying Employees = More Than Any Major Tech Startup in History (3 minute read)

OpenAI's average stock-based compensati= on for its roughly 4,000 employees is about $1.5 million per employee. The = company's equity awards, aimed at helping it keep its lead in the AI race, = are inflating its heavy operating losses and diluting existing shareholders= .. OpenAI recently announced the discontinuation of a policy that required e= mployees to work at the company for at least six months before their equity= vests. This could lead to further compensation increases.
SoftBank has fully funded $= 40 billion investment in OpenAI (3 minute read)

Softbank sent over the final amount to = complete its $40 billion investment in OpenAI last week. The company's stak= e in OpenAI is now around 11%. Softbank has been betting big on technology = and AI companies. It recently agreed to pay $4 billion for data center inve= stment firm DigitalBridge to strengthen its AI push.
=F0=9F= =9A=80

Science & Futuristic Technology

Tesla shares epic 2025 reca= p video, confirms start of Cybercab production (2 minute read)

Tesla has released a year-in-review vid= eo for 2025 that recaps major achievements for the company. The montage cel= ebrated the company's progress on EVs, energy, and Robotaxi development. It= also confirmed that the production of the Cybercab has started. The video = can be viewed in the article.
Meet a US Start-Up Trying t= o Break China's Rare-Earth Monopoly (10 minute read)

There is too little money to be made in= rare earth to be of much interest to mining giants, so the challenge of re= establishing a domestic industry in the US has fallen to small companies. M= etal prices have risen in recent months as China has restricted exports in = response to US tariffs. It will be difficult for local startups to compete = as China's grip on the industry is tight, and it is known to sell rare-eart= h metals for less than it costs to produce them. The biggest question is wh= ether the US government will continue to subsidize the domestic industry, a= nd at what level.
=F0=9F= =92=BB

Programming, Design & Data Science

The Efficiency Paradox: Why= Making Software Easier to Write Means We'll Write Exponentially More (6 mi= nute read)

Efficiency improvements reveal latent d= emand that was previously uneconomic to address. The pattern is consistent = throughout history. We are about to see an increase in knowledge work outpu= t of several orders of magnitude. This will likely reveal that humanity has= been massively under-investing in knowledge work because it was too expens= ive.
Software Engineering in 202= 6 (5 minute read)

The primary impact of AI tooling so far= is that the marginal cost of producing code has gone down significantly. H= owever, producing code is only part of the job, so the bottlenecks for engi= neering time will shift elsewhere. The software engineering field seems poi= sed to be more mechanized, but more productive as a result. Most of the eff= ects of the mindset shift that has been accelerating for the last few month= s have yet to be fully realized.
=F0=9F= =8E=81

Miscellaneous

<= /div>
2025 letter (72 minute read= )

Progress is a smooth trend that obscure= s jagged details. History is a record of thousands of years of stasis befor= e hundreds of years of growth. There hasn't been any constant normal trend = ever, so no one should expect AI to be the same. Nothing is truly inevitabl= e, but it would be strange if progress stopped tomorrow.
Five Takes to End 2025 (7 m= inute read)

A lot of the assumptions across the tec= h industry were seriously put to the test this year. This post takes a look= at some of the things that happened to see what the future may bring. It c= overs OpenAI's business, Google's dominance in AI, Alan Dye's role at Apple= , software on-demand, and what Apple needs to do to win next year.
=E2=9A= =A1

Quick Links

When the line stops going u= p (11 minute read)

It's easy to make progress when you sta= rt doing something, but that will plateau over time, and it can be hard to = come to terms with the change.
10 ideas for 2026 (3 minute= read)

10 ideas to consider in the coming year= ..
Balance of power (25 minute= read)

As big business, big government, and bi= g mob get stronger, they can no longer avoid frequently interacting.
Tech Startups Are Handing O= ut Free Nicotine Pouches to Boost Productivity (7 minute read)

Companies like Palantir are giving empl= oyees free nicotine products through vending machines.
Two Years After Leaving Goo= gle: The Truth About Entrepreneurship (10 minute read)

Entrepreneurship is hard, but it gives = you a type of freedom that is difficult to give up.
Advice for generalists who = want to join startups (10 minute read)

Find a way to prove that you can identi= fy useful work before you are even hired by the company.

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Apply here, create your own role or send a friend's resume to jobs@tldr.tech an= d get $1k if we hire them! TLDR is one of Inc.'s Best Bootstrapped businesses = of 2025.

If you have any comments or feedback, just respond to this email!

Thanks for reading,
Dan Ni &a= mp; Stephen = Flanders


Manage your subscriptions to our other newsletters o= n tech, startups, and programming. Or if TLDR isn't for you, please unsubscribe.
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