Regarding recent media reports about "Guo Daya, a core researcher from DeepSeek95, has joined ByteDance with an annual salary of nearly 100 million yuan," Li Liang, vice president of TikTok Group, publicly refuted the report on social platforms on the evening of April 16, clearly stating that the relevant reports are not true. Li Liang pointed out that ByteDance has not recently hired employees with annual salaries as high as 100 million yuan, and also provided transparent explanations about the incentive mechanisms for its internal core technology teams.
According to Li Liang, all technical staff in ByteDance's Seed team follow a unified salary system, which includes cash, ByteDance stock options, and Doubao stock options. This system follows a four-year full vesting policy, without any "performance-based" clauses that require meeting specific conditions to fully obtain the options. Regarding the possibility of high returns, Li Liang explained that the value of the stock options for Seed team employees is closely tied to the growth of the business. If AI businesses such as Doubao develop beyond expectations, some technical experts may have the potential to gain several hundred million yuan in cumulative stock option earnings after four years, but this depends on market fluctuations in option prices, not on guaranteed annual salaries set at the time of hiring.
This clarification reflects the stance of leading companies on salary transparency and talent development amid the intensifying global competition for AI talent. As ByteDance continues to invest in the Seed team and related large model businesses, talent incentive strategies have become a key indicator for the market to observe its AI strategy.
