A new trend is emerging in Silicon Valley where companies are offering AI compute tokens as part of employee compensation. Leaders like Jensen Huang suggest that engineers could receive a significant portion of their compensation in tokens, which are used to power tools like ChatGPT and Claude. The idea is simple: more access to AI compute means higher productivity, making engineers more valuable.

As AI agents become more autonomous and resource-intensive, token consumption is skyrocketing. Engineers running advanced workflows can burn through millions of tokens daily, turning compute into a core resource—similar to salary, equity, and bonuses. This shift is quickly redefining how companies think about performance and output.