The FDE comp gap between a strong enterprise and a frontier lab is enormous, and it's almost entirely equity. Palantir's classic FDSE is cash-heavy at ~$211K median total comp; an OpenAI or Anthropic FDE lands at $350–550K mid-to-senior — the difference is stock.
So read the equity. What's the grant, over what vesting, with what cliff? Is the headline "total comp" the annualized grant value or something realizable? For a private lab, what's the last valuation, the liquidity path, and the refresh policy — because a grant that never refreshes decays fast.
Then adjust for reality. A tax-free Gulf package at $100K cash lands closer to a taxed $140–160K in take-home; a $200K SF base costs a third of itself to the Bay Area. The offer letter's biggest number is rarely the one that matters.
The discipline is simple: convert every offer to the same terms — realizable, after tax, after cost of living — before you compare. Most candidates skip that step and choose wrong.
Sources: 2026 FDE compensation report; Levels.fyi; frontier-lab disclosures.