British billionaire trader to pay interns £26,000 a month

Alex Gerko’s XTX Markets is seeking postgraduates with ‘a proven publication record’ in AI - Rahul Singh/XTX Markets

A British billionaire trader is offering to pay student interns $35,000 (£26,000) a month to join his trading empire amid an escalating war for tech talent.

Alex Gerko, who runs XTX Markets, is advertising for postgraduates to join the firm on a 12 to 14-week research internship where they stand to earn between $105,000 and $122,500 in total.

A recent advert on the company’s website says the company is seeking a candidate who is “eager to push the boundaries of high-risk, high-reward AI research”.

The position is based four days a week in XTX’s New York offices, and will pay a “a generous sign-on bonus” so candidates can rent a flat in the area.

XTX is planning to pay its interns more than three times the average monthly salary in New York, where a typical worker is paid $7,046 (£5,236).

Mr Gerko, who owns a 150-acre estate in the Chiltern Hills, is understood to be Britain’s biggest single individual taxpayer, contributing £665m in 2023 alone. Last year he paid himself a record £682m after a surge in profits at his trading firm.

‘King of geeks’

The Russian-born billionaire founded the company in 2015, after moving to London from Moscow to work at Deutsche Bank.

He has been dubbed “king of the geeks” because his firm’s computer science expertise and sophisticated algorithms give it a lucrative edge when trading billions of dollars every hour. It remains small, however, only employing 250 people.

The move underlines the battle by tech firms to lure the most talented software engineers and mathematical minds. Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta reportedly offered one tech worker $1bn to join his AI team at the tech giant, but the offer was turned down.

Software engineers in Silicon Valley are also earning hundreds of thousands of dollars as tech companies try to gain an edge in the AI race.

According to XTX, its interns will “pioneer the future of algorithmic trading” in an “academia-like” workplace, where they can take their research and turn it into services used by traders.

“This direct pipeline from research to implementation establishes [the research labs] as a premier destination for those looking to make a significant impact in the financial sector through original machine learning research,” according to the job spec.

Top-performing interns will be “actively considered” for permanent roles in New York or London.

XTX said it was looking for students pursuing a doctorate in computer science, electrical engineering, mathematics or a similar field with “a proven publication record” in AI.

Mr Gerko has said he is “happy to pay a ton of taxes”, but has criticised the Government’s management of public finances.

Story Continues

“What on earth is this government doing with taxpayer money?” he said after the Chancellor cut capital gains tax allowances.

Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.

View Comments