More than 100 former investment bankers from JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) and Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) have joined OpenAI’s (OPENAI) secretive Project Mercury to help train AI systems capable of automating the tedious modeling work done by junior bankers, according to a Tuesday media report.
Sam Altman’s OpenAI (OPENAI) is paying each ex-Wall Street bankers $150 per hour to craft prompts and train its AI financial models spanning deals from initial public offerings to restructurings, Bloomberg reported, citing documents. The participants will also get early access to the new AI they’re helping to create.
The move adds to concerns about the job security of investment banking analysts — which are known to work heavy workweek hours focused on building Microsoft (MSFT) Excel models for dealmaking activities — as the lenders actively move into AI to boost efficiency.
It also highlights OpenAI’s (OPENAI) push to expand its technology’s practical use across industries, reaching beyond investment banking into numerous fields like law and consulting.
In the meantime, the big banks broadly benefited from a more favorable markets backdrop in Q3, significantly lifting investment-banking revenue and fee growth.