> Grab opened an R&D lab in Seattle and hire Google folks. That's breaking the wallet big time in terms of employee compensation.

Sure they will open in Seattle as it's 30% or more cheaper than Singapore. Grab's largest R&D team is in Singapore. They did bring in talent from around the world here. But as the cost in Singapore is very high, to get an expat is very expensive. [1]

So it does make sense to open in cheaper location an R&D, it also shows they have engineering talent from around the globe.

[1] https://www.businessinsider.sg/most-expensive-cities-in-the-...

Cheaper in Seattle? I don't have the exact number how expensive it is to hire folks in Singapore but I can tell you this: those google folks cost at least 150k USD base without bonus and RSU. Someone like Steve Yegge will have total compensation north of $500k USD at Google so Grab should at least pay him 700k-1M USD.

Google Fresh Grad total compensation should be between 150k - 300k usd in Mountain View. Fresh grad. Seattle usually cost 10-15% less total compensation compare to Mountain View.

Heck even recent Microsoft offer for fresh grad base:110k, bonus 10-20%, and rsu. That's MSFT, not FAANG. FAANG will give you signon bonus on top of that ranging from 50k-100k.

Keep in mind Grab RSU is paper money at the moment.

I highly doubt Singapore engineers, given the same level, make that much. Probably only the top 0.5%.

I don't see a good discussion as you still think that these folks don't come to North America and open R&D lab because it's cheaper than Singapore since that logic does not make any sense out of the gate: India is way cheaper, why not grow there and don't even bother opening a lab in Seattle. You do know that it is damn hard to grow an R&D Lab in the USA due to regulations and immigration policies right.

In order to avoid repeating the facts on the field, I would suggest you to reach out to the executives in those companies and ask why they do so as I have done before to avoid confusion, assumptions, and guessing games.