The original bar chart from workforce.ai (shared in the X post) lists universities by the number of alumni at OpenAI, with top U.S. schools dominating: Stanford (~230), UC Berkeley (~151), MIT (~100), and others like Carnegie Mellon, Harvard, etc. It explicitly highlights only two non-North American institutions—Tsinghua University (37 alumni) and Peking University (31)—as notable foreign entries, alongside a few mentions of University of Waterloo (Canada, ~39) in replies.
These numbers reflect where people earned their degrees (often graduate/PhD levels for AI roles), but workforce.ai data doesn't break down nationality, citizenship, or whether alumni were international students during their U.S. studies.
There is no publicly available exact count from OpenAI or workforce.ai for how many employees are international students (especially Chinese nationals) who graduated from American universities. However, broader industry reports and analyses provide strong context on this talent pipeline:
Chinese-origin talent is a major force in U.S. AI overall, with many completing undergrad in China (e.g., at Tsinghua or Peking) before pursuing graduate degrees (Master's/PhD) at top U.S. schools like Stanford, MIT, or Berkeley, then joining companies like OpenAI.
Studies (e.g., from MacroPolo and Carnegie Endowment) show that nearly 40% of top AI researchers in the U.S. have undergraduate degrees from Chinese universities, even though they often earn advanced degrees in the U.S.
In elite AI teams (including OpenAI's past model contributions like GPT-4o), Chinese nationals or those with Chinese undergrad backgrounds make up significant portions—e.g., around 1/5 to nearly half in some core contributor groups.
For PhD-level AI talent trained in the U.S., non-U.S. citizens (many from China) comprise ~50-60% of graduates in relevant fields, per White House/CEA reports and related analyses.
OpenAI's heavy reliance on Stanford/Berkeley/MIT (hundreds of alumni combined) means a substantial but unquantified portion are likely international/Chinese students who studied there—especially at the graduate level, where international enrollment in CS/AI programs is very high (often 40-60%+ non-U.S.).
In short: While the chart shows mostly U.S. schools, a meaningful (likely double-digit percentage overall, higher among researchers) share of those alumni from American universities are international students of Chinese origin. This reflects the globalized nature of elite AI talent, where many top contributors follow the path: elite Chinese undergrad → U.S. grad school → OpenAI or similar.
This pattern is widely discussed in the context of U.S.-China tech competition, with U.S. companies actively drawing from this pool despite visa/geopolitical challenges. Exact numbers for OpenAI remain proprietary, but the trend is clear from industry-wide data.
I asked Grok:
The original bar chart from workforce.ai (shared in the X post) lists universities by the number of alumni at OpenAI, with top U.S. schools dominating: Stanford (~230), UC Berkeley (~151), MIT (~100), and others like Carnegie Mellon, Harvard, etc. It explicitly highlights only two non-North American institutions—Tsinghua University (37 alumni) and Peking University (31)—as notable foreign entries, alongside a few mentions of University of Waterloo (Canada, ~39) in replies.
These numbers reflect where people earned their degrees (often graduate/PhD levels for AI roles), but workforce.ai data doesn't break down nationality, citizenship, or whether alumni were international students during their U.S. studies.
International/Chinese Students from U.S. Universities at OpenAIInternational/Chinese Students from U.S. Universities at OpenAI
There is no publicly available exact count from OpenAI or workforce.ai for how many employees are international students (especially Chinese nationals) who graduated from American universities. However, broader industry reports and analyses provide strong context on this talent pipeline:
In short: While the chart shows mostly U.S. schools, a meaningful (likely double-digit percentage overall, higher among researchers) share of those alumni from American universities are international students of Chinese origin. This reflects the globalized nature of elite AI talent, where many top contributors follow the path: elite Chinese undergrad → U.S. grad school → OpenAI or similar.
This pattern is widely discussed in the context of U.S.-China tech competition, with U.S. companies actively drawing from this pool despite visa/geopolitical challenges. Exact numbers for OpenAI remain proprietary, but the trend is clear from industry-wide data.