The hottest job in AI right now may be counterintelligence as companies pay former spooks $500,000 to protect trade secrets

Anthropic has hired 33 employees for counterintelligence roles so far this year, up from 14 in 2025 and nine in 2024, as AI companies race to protect trade secrets from rivals and nation-states. The surge reflects growing demand for former intelligence officers, who can command salaries of up to $500,000 as firms guard model weights, training data and research roadmaps. The hires underscore how intellectual property has become a core competitive asset in the AI arms race, elevating security from a back-office function to a strategic priority. Watch for other leading labs to disclose similar buildouts and for compensation benchmarks to climb as demand for scarce security talent intensifies.