2026-01-17T15:30:02.019Z<\/p>\n
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Copy link Email Facebook<\/p>\n WhatsApp<\/p>\n X<\/p>\n LinkedIn<\/p>\n Bluesky<\/p>\n Threads<\/p>\n lighning bolt icon Impact Link<\/p>\n Save <\/p>\n Read in app<\/p>\n <\/a> <\/p>\n This story is available exclusively to Business Insider A version of this story originally appeared in the BI Tech Memo newsletter. Silicon Valley is sending a clear message about how staff should perform, and how it wants to pay them.<\/p>\n Instead of obsessing over punishing the bottom of the stack, Big Tech is increasingly choosing to shower rewards on the top:<\/p>\n Meta’s overhauled performance system<\/a> is the latest and most striking example. Under its new “Checkpoint” program, standout employees can earn bonuses worth up to 300% of their target. That’s tens of thousands of extra dollars tied purely to impact, not promotions or title changes.Google is loosening the funnel into its top performance buckets<\/a> and shifting more bonus and equity upward.Amazon is doubling down on sustained excellence<\/a>, allowing long-term top performers to earn above traditional pay-band caps.<\/p>\n What’s especially notable is how this is being driven by AI, according to Zuhayeer Musa, cofounder of Silicon Valley compensation data cruncher Levels.fyi<\/a>.<\/p>\n As AI tools get more powerful, the value of high-leverage individuals is rising. The most prized employees today are “player-coaches,” people who ship work themselves while also guiding projects, mentoring peers, and shaping strategy. AI makes that hybrid role even more potent, allowing a single strong contributor to amplify their output, and their influence, without managing a large team, Musa wrote<\/a> this week.<\/p>\n The result is a revival of the individual contributor track. You no longer have to become a full-time people manager to earn top-tier pay. At companies such as Meta, Google, Amazon, and Nvidia, senior ICs can now match (or beat) the compensation of managers simply by delivering outsized results, he noted.<\/p>\n For ambitious employees, the takeaway is simple: in the AI era, execution compounds. And Silicon Valley is increasingly willing to pay for it.<\/p>\n Sign up for BI’s Tech Memo newsletter here<\/a>. Reach out to me via email at abarr@businessinsider.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2026-01-17T15:30:02.019Z Share Copy link Email Facebook WhatsApp X LinkedIn Bluesky Threads lighning bolt icon An icon in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[345,343,344,85,46,125],"class_list":["post-243774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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