The people making bank are those creating these startups.

Their startups get acquired, or they get acqui-hired because of the founders and core people, who in turn have some pedigree which send strong signals.

If you look at the pattern, it is roughly:

- Top ML/AI researchers from the past 10-15 years - Top ML/AI engineers from top labs or companies

Those above people were hired by FAANG companies or AI startups.

But most important of all, it isn't a overnight success. Many of these have been going at it for 10+ years now. Of course some are relatively young, as in having joined Anthropic or OpenAI more recently (past few years), and launching their own startup after 2022.