ByteDance is offering low-cost stock options tied specifically to its Doubao business to employees in its Seed AI division. According to four people familiar with the matter, this marks ByteDance’s first issuance of shares linked to a particular business unit. The Long-Term Incentive Plan (LTI) was officially launched in October 2025; in May, employees could exercise their options at $13 per share — nearly a 30% increase from the roughly $10 price set a year earlier, reflecting accelerating commercialization efforts within ByteDance’s large-model cloud services. Option allocations are determined based on performance and seniority, with a vesting period lasting 18 months. This structure allows staff to directly benefit from Seed’s growth while shielding them from dilution caused by other parts of ByteDance. Reportedly, nearly 70 key technical personnel have left the Seed team over the past year, moving to competitors such as Tencent and DeepSeek.
Established in 2023, Seed focuses on cutting-edge research involving large language models, speech processing, computer vision, and world models; its Doubao model now serves over 50 different applications. To combat intensifying competition for talent, ByteDance has also significantly ramped up its AI-related investments: its projected AI capital expenditure for 2026 stands at roughly $23 billion (approximately RMB 160 billion), surpassing the ~RMB 150 billion allocated in 2025, with more than half earmarked for semiconductor development. Earlier reports suggested ByteDance offered top researchers salaries as high as RMB 100 million; although the company later denied those figures, executives confirmed that compensation packages for Seed employees comprise cash payments, ByteDance shares, and stock options tied to Doubao.