More financial services quants are spending their gardening leaves at OpenAI
AI research giants like OpenAI are some of the few firms who can match the pay you can earn as a quant in a hedge fund or algorithmic trading firm. It's no surprise then that some of those quants are choosing to work there while non-competes leave them unable to work at a rival firm.
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Zeyuan Shang spent the last year and a half in Citadel Securities' alternative data research team. He graduated with a computer science PhD less than three years ago, but appears to have a 24-month non-compete period at the firm. He says his gardening leave ends in early 2027, but in the meantime, he has joined OpenAI as a member of technical staff.
Shang isn't your usual graduate hire. While completing his computer science PhD at MIT, he co-founded and served as chief architect of Einblick, a generative AI startup acquired by Databricks for an undisclosed amount last year. He joined Citadel Securities roughly six months after the announcement of the acquisition.
He's not the only Citadel Securities alum to join OpenAI this month. Andrey Grinshpun, a quant researcher of three years at Citadel Securities, also joined as an AI researcher. He was previously a partner at quant hedge fund Teza Technologies.
OpenAI's rivals are also attracting quant talent. Jane Street alums James Chen and Kerrick Staley joined Anthropic in December and January, respectively. Citadel quant developer Koutiang Huang joined Elon Musk-owned xAI last month.
Citadel Securities may not have deemed the firm a competitor in Shang's instance, but non-competes are thought to be role-dependent and there's no guarantee OpenAI won't be a competitor for certain roles.
There are certainly easier things to do during a non-compete. OpenAI's culture is thought to be very hard-driving with "no work-life balance" according to its employees.
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