OpenAI hires former bankers to train financial-modelling tool

#OpenAI has reportedly hired over 100 former investment bankers from firms like Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Morgan Stanley for “Project Mercury,” a secret effort to train AI models to automate junior bankers’ grunt work. Participants are paid $150/hour to build financial models and write prompts for tasks like IPOs and restructurings, with the goal of teaching AI to replicate analysts’ workflows. Contractors submit one model per week and receive feedback before integration into OpenAI’s systems. Source: Wall St Engine @wallstengine

Industrialization replaced #blue-collar jobs. Now AI is replacing #white-collar ones. #OpenAI is training #ChatGPT for financial analyst roles. I paused at the news. That’s not just another AI headline — it’s a signal. Knowledge work is being redefined. As educators, we can’t fight this wave. But we can prepare our students to rise above it — to think deeper, connect dots, and create value beyond what AI can replicate. That’s exactly what we aim to do through the InvestUp Challenge. In our 10-week stock challenge, students make decisions in #real markets, applying #real-time investing fundamentals, developing #business sense. It’s a journey 🔹 from knowing → to understanding 🔹 from doing → to thinking 🔹 from following → to creating Honestly, the challenge is on Mark Coggins and me too — we’re learning, adapting, and growing alongside our students. Education isn’t about memorizing anymore — it’s about mental adaptability. AI can process data, but we can still think, question, and imagine in ways it can’t. 🌍 Join us in rethinking what learning means in an AI-disrupted world. What are you trying in your classroom or workplace? #AI #Education #FutureOfWork #InvestUp #CriticalThinking #ChatGPT #Learning #Innovation

BREAKING: OpenAI has quietly hired over 100 former Wall Street bankers, including alumni from Goldman Sachs, JPMorganChase, and Morgan Stanley, to help train its AI on building financial models. Codenamed “Project Mercury,” the effort pays contractors $150 an hour to write prompts and create Excel-based models for IPOs, restructurings, and M&A deals. The goal? To teach AI how to replicate, and eventually automate, the tedious modeling and deck-editing work that dominates life for junior analysts. The project reflects Sam Altman’s broader push to make OpenAI’s tech indispensable to businesses, from finance to consulting to law, as the company chases profitability following its $500 billion valuation. Analysts may soon have a new competitor, one that doesn’t need coffee breaks, weekends, or “pls fix” emails.

Educators need to meet the challenge to provide young people with a set of skills that respond to the very real threat of AI

OpenAI hiring >100 ex-Wall Street bankers to train AI models (under a project called “Project Mercury”) to build financial models, valuations, IPOs, restructurings and the like. This is not shocking, but definitely a sign of what’s next. As someone in IR & finance, I see this less as a headline and more as a turning point. The lines between traditional finance skills and AI-driven capabilities are blurring faster than we expected. I have always believed that financial modelling is as much about judgment and storytelling as it is about numbers. If AI can handle the mechanics, human can focus on the interpretation, the “why it matters” part. But it also means no one can stay still. This is the time to up-skill, adapt, and stay curious, not because jobs will disappear overnight, but because the definition of value is shifting. For finance professionals, this could be a real roller-coaster: new roles, new expectations, new opportunities. Introducing artificial intelligence to such a tightly regulated industry could lay the groundwork for its adoption in fields like legal, accounting, and healthcare which should be no surprise. #Finance #InvestorRelations #AI #FutureOfWork #Leadership #Upskilling #Change

OpenAI is moving to automate parts of investment banking - hiring former JPM, MS, and GS bankers at around $150 per hour to build prompts for financial modelling and pitch-deck generation. This initiative is all apart of Sam Altman’s broader push to expand ChatGPT’s enterprise capabilities. But how might this affect investment-banking hiring? Typically these responsibilities will often fall to analysts on the team if those functions become semi-automated, banks may begin hiring fewer analysts, instead prioritising those who can interpret AI outputs, develop client relationships and demonstrate strong soft skills. Tip - make yourselves indispensable, analysts who combine technical know-how with emotional intelligence and adaptability will stand out. https://lnkd.in/gGmNWc7Z

I think this is inevitable and will ultimately help in making junior banker lives better. Junior bankers should know how to do the work without Al help, but should be able to leverage these tools whenever possible so they can save time and focus on more analytical aspects of the job. Big banks have always had internal tech teams working on tools to automate cumbersome tasks (10 years ago for example, I had excel plugins to auto-format slides and hyperlink between excel / ppt). This is just another wave of technological innovation that will help the industry as a whole. Junior bankers won't be fully automated out of jobs, they'll just be more efficient.

the foundations for a profound impact of AI in banking are being built now. Banks would do well to think about how to face this future - today

Long coming! Base level financial analyst roles may get democratised cutting down significant operation cost for investment banks. Leaving investment banks as a pure play of relationships! Similar roles in non-financial companies may still exist to avoid dependence on just an agent/software Anyhow, financial analysis may no longer be a job, rather it could become a small part of some other more valuable job.

OpenAI has over 100 ex-investment bankers helping train its AI as it looks to eliminate the grunt work done by juniors. Participants are paid $150 per hour to write prompts and build financial models for transaction types including restructurings and IPOs. Jobs are not safe. The automation spiral has begun.