Deadline and start-date list
Dates printed on employer pages, nearest first. Only dates after 17 October 2026 are listed.
- Rolling now (all postings except Google): apply as early as possible; Greenhouse feeds for these roles carry no deadline field.
- 17 May 2027: first Pinterest machine learning internship start date (12 weeks, to 6 August 2027).
- 7 June 2027: IMC deep learning research interns must be able to start in person.
- 14 June 2027: second Pinterest start date (to 3 September 2027).
- 16 July 2027: Google Student Researcher (PhD) posting closes, "but may close earlier".
Checked 17 October 2026 at each employer's own page.
AI internships open now
Seventeen 2027-cycle AI and machine learning internships, each confirmed on the employer's own careers page or its own Greenhouse job board. Pay is copied as published, with the unit the employer uses.
| Employer | Role | Deadline | Published pay | Eligibility | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IMC Trading | Deep Learning Research Intern, Summer 2027 | Rolling | $300,000 base salary (annualised; 10-week program) | BS, MS or PhD, graduating Sept 2027 to July 2028 | Chicago, New York |
| DRW | Quantitative Research Intern | Rolling | $250,000 to $300,000 annual base | Bachelor's, master's or PhD, graduating Dec 2027 to Aug 2028 | Chicago, New York |
| DRW | AI/ML Research Intern | Rolling | Master's or PhD preferred, graduating Dec 2027 to June 2028 | Montreal | |
| Hudson River Trading | Algorithm Development (Quant Research and Trading) Internship, Summer 2027 | Rolling | $5,800 per week (New York) | Full-time undergraduate or master's student, quantitative field | New York, London, Singapore |
| Hudson River Trading | Algorithm Development PhD Internship, Summer 2027 | Rolling | $5,800 per week (New York) | Full-time PhD student, quantitative field | New York, London, Singapore |
| Hudson River Trading | Data Scientist Intern, 2027 | Rolling | $5,800 per week (New York) | Full-time STEM student | New York, London |
| Akuna Capital | Quantitative Research Intern, Summer 2027 | Rolling | From $145,000 minimum annualized base | Bachelor's, master's or PhD graduating by Aug 2028; GPA 3.5 or higher | Chicago |
| Student Researcher, PhD, Winter-Summer 2027 | 16 July 2027 | $118,000 to $157,000 USD (printed without a unit; an annual range) | Enrolled PhD student, located in the US | Mountain View and 24 other US sites | |
| PhD Machine Learning Internship 2027 (USA) | Rolling | $12,100 per month | PhD student; US-based applicants only | SF, Palo Alto, Seattle, New York (remote or hybrid) | |
| Master's Machine Learning Internship 2027 (USA) | Rolling | $11,000 per month | Master's student; US-based applicants only | SF, Palo Alto, Seattle, New York (remote or hybrid) | |
| Waymo | 2027 Summer Intern, PhD, Machine Learning Research, Planning/Prediction | Rolling | $85 per hour | Current PhD in CS, ML or robotics | Mountain View (hybrid) |
| Figma | PhD Intern, AI Applied Scientist (2027) | Rolling | $74 per hour, plus housing stipend | Fourth or fifth year PhD with publications | San Francisco, New York |
| Figma | Data Science Intern (2027) | Rolling | $46 per hour, plus housing stipend | SQL, Python or R, statistics | San Francisco, New York |
| Roblox | [2027] Applied Scientist, PhD Intern | Rolling | $72 per hour | Has or is pursuing a PhD, with publications | San Mateo |
| Roblox | [2027] Data Scientist, PhD Intern | Rolling | $66 per hour | PhD in a quantitative field; one year of causal inference or ML research | San Mateo |
| Lyft | Applied Scientist Intern, PhD (Summer 2027) | Rolling | $64 to $68 per hour (San Francisco) | PhD graduating Dec 2027 to summer 2028 | San Francisco (hybrid) |
| Duolingo | Data Scientist, Intern | Rolling | $54 to $56 per hour | Undergraduate or master's, graduating fall 2027 to summer 2028 | New York, Pittsburgh |
Checked 17 October 2026 at each employer's own page.
Two patterns stand out. First, the best-paid AI internships on this list are at quant trading firms, and those firms take undergraduates. Second, product companies such as Pinterest, Roblox, Waymo and Lyft reserve most machine learning internship seats for PhD students. A master's student has a real shot at Pinterest, Duolingo and the quant firms; a sophomore should look at the entry routes in our guide to entry-level AI jobs.
Three kinds of AI internship
Not every program called an internship works the same way. The table compares the three routes students ask about most.
| Route | Example | Who can apply | Pay as published | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Employer internship | Pinterest Master's Machine Learning Internship | Enrolled students | $11,000 per month | 12 weeks |
| Student researcher program | Google DeepMind Student Researcher Program | Enrolled bachelor's, master's or PhD students | Paid; no figure printed | 12 to 24 weeks |
| Fellowship or residency | Anthropic Fellows program (AI Safety Fellow) | Work authorization in the US, UK or Canada; no visa sponsorship | $3,850 per week stipend, plus about $15,000 per month of compute | Four months |
| Platform AI training work | Handshake AI evaluation projects | Varies by project | Up to $17 per hour for an AI Evaluation Specialist listing | Project based |
Checked 17 October 2026 at each employer's (or platform's) own page.
A fellowship is not a student internship. The OpenAI Residency is a six-month program paying $18,333 monthly, but residents are full-time employees and "cannot be actively enrolled in any school programs", and applications for the 2026 residency are closed. Platform work pays far less but needs no interview cycle; our guide to AI training jobs compares those platforms.
What AI internships pay
Pay is published in four different units, so compare carefully.
| Posting | Published figure | Unit | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| IMC deep learning research | $300,000 | Base salary | Annualised; the program runs 10 weeks |
| DRW quantitative research | $250,000 to $300,000 | Annual base | Annualised |
| Akuna quantitative research | $145,000 minimum | Annualized base | Annualised by Akuna |
| Hudson River Trading | $5,800 | Per week | Plus signing bonus, housing and meals |
| Pinterest PhD ML | $12,100 | Per month | 12 weeks |
| Waymo PhD ML research | $85 | Per hour | |
| Figma PhD AI applied scientist | $74 | Per hour | Plus housing stipend |
| Duolingo data scientist | $54 to $56 | Per hour | |
| NACE bachelor's-level average | $23.35 | Per hour | All industries, summer 2025 interns |
Checked 17 October 2026 at each employer's (or survey's) own page.
An annualised figure is what the salary would be if the job lasted a full year. You are paid only for the weeks you work, so a $300,000 annualised base over 10 weeks is far less than $300,000 in hand. The benchmark comes from NACE's 2026 Internship and Co-op Survey report, which puts the bachelor's-level intern average at $23.35 per hour and notes it is down 3.4% in real terms from 2016 to 2025. Every AI posting in our table pays at least double that. Internships also feed full-time hiring: NACE reports a 63.1% conversion rate for 2024-25 interns. For full-time pay after graduation, see our AI engineer salary guide.
Eligibility by employer
| Employer | Graduation window | Degree level |
|---|---|---|
| IMC | Sept 2027 to July 2028 | BS, MS or PhD |
| DRW (quant research) | Dec 2027 to Aug 2028 | Bachelor's, master's or PhD |
| Akuna Capital | By Aug 2028 | Bachelor's, master's or PhD |
| Duolingo | Fall 2027 to summer 2028 | Undergraduate or master's |
| Lyft | Dec 2027 to summer 2028 | PhD |
| Google Student Researcher | Continuing PhD studies | PhD |
| Enrolled during the 2027 internship | Master's or PhD (separate postings) |
Checked 17 October 2026 at each employer's own page.
International students: CPT and OPT basics
F-1 students can usually work a US internship through Curricular Practical Training (CPT) or Optional Practical Training (OPT). The rules below come from Study in the States, run by DHS, and the USCIS Policy Manual.
- CPT is approved by your school, not USCIS. Study in the States says your designated school official (DSO) authorizes CPT in SEVIS, for one specific employer and period, and "CPT must be authorized before the student can begin work."
- One academic year first. You normally need a full academic year of full-time enrollment, with an exception for graduate programs that require earlier training.
- Watch the 12-month line. One year of full-time CPT eliminates OPT eligibility at the same degree level.
- OPT runs 12 months per degree level. The USCIS Policy Manual allows post-completion OPT applications no earlier than 90 days before and no later than 60 days after your program end date, on Form I-765, and you may not start until the date on your EAD.
- STEM degrees can add 24 months. The STEM OPT hub covers the 24-month extension for eligible STEM graduates.
Employer policies differ. Akuna accepts F-1 CPT, OPT and STEM OPT, while Roblox says it may not employ candidates on certain visa categories and Pinterest and Google limit some roles to US-based applicants.
Programs that are not student internships
- OpenAI: the residency requires full-time employment and no school enrollment; 2026 applications are closed.
- Anthropic: the Fellows program pays a weekly stipend for four months and accepts applications on a rolling basis.
- Meta AI: the AI Residency page says applications are closed and the last listed cohort started in fall 2023.
- Microsoft Research: its open positions page lists research intern roles posted in October 2026 without pay figures.
Trackers worth using
| Tracker | What it is | Best use |
|---|---|---|
| SimplifyJobs Summer 2027 Internships | GitHub list "updated daily by Simplify and Pitt CSC", with an AI and data science section | Spotting new postings early |
| Handshake | Career network used by universities | On-campus recruiting and employer events |
| Levels.fyi internships | 2026-2027 internship pay list; figures are self-reported | Sanity-checking an offer |
| Employer job alerts | IMC, Pinterest and HRT offer alerts or talent communities | Never missing a reopened role |
Checked 17 October 2026 at each tracker's own page.
Always click through to the employer's posting before applying. Trackers lag, and only the employer page is authoritative for pay and eligibility.
Best pick by situation
- Undergraduate with strong math: IMC, DRW or Hudson River Trading. They take bachelor's students and publish the highest pay.
- Master's student in machine learning: Pinterest's master's ML internship at $11,000 per month, with one application covering several ML teams.
- PhD student in ML research: Waymo at $85 per hour or Google Student Researcher, which runs until July 2027.
- Data science focus: Duolingo or Figma, both hourly and open to non-PhD students.
- Not enrolled in school: a fellowship such as Anthropic's, or salaried roles on our machine learning jobs board.
If you are still building skills, our path to becoming an AI engineer lays out what interviewers test.
Scam warning
Fake internship offers target students every fall. The FTC's job scams guidance is blunt: "Honest employers, including the federal government, will never ask you to pay to get a job." It also warns that no honest employer sends a check to deposit and then asks you to send part of it back. The FTC's December 2024 Data Spotlight reported job scam losses above $220 million in the first half of 2024 alone.
Before you sign anything:
- Find the role on the employer's own careers page.
- Confirm the recruiter's email domain matches the company.
- Refuse any request for fees, equipment purchases or gift cards.
- Ignore unexpected texts or WhatsApp messages offering intern work.
How we researched this
On 17 October 2026 we opened each employer's own posting, on its careers site or its own Greenhouse board, and copied pay, eligibility, location and dates as printed. We read NACE's 2026 survey reports for the wage benchmark, Study in the States and the USCIS Policy Manual for CPT and OPT, and the FTC for scam guidance. Postings are rechecked monthly. More on our approach is on the AI jobs hub and our machine learning engineer career path.
Frequently asked questions
When do 2027 AI internship applications close? Most close when seats fill, not on a date. All but one posting on this page use rolling review; Google's PhD Student Researcher posting is open until 16 July 2027 but may close earlier.
Which AI internship pays the most? IMC's deep learning research internship publishes a $300,000 base salary, an annualised figure for a 10-week program. DRW publishes $250,000 to $300,000 annualised for quant research interns.
How much does a machine learning internship pay per hour? Published rates on this page run from $46 per hour (Figma data science) to $85 per hour (Waymo PhD ML research). NACE puts the all-industry bachelor's-level intern average at $23.35 per hour.
Can undergraduates get an AI research internship? Yes, mainly at trading firms. IMC, DRW, Hudson River Trading and Akuna accept bachelor's students; most big tech machine learning internships on this list require a PhD.
Is a residency the same as an internship? No. The OpenAI Residency hires full-time employees who cannot be enrolled in school, while internships require current enrollment.
Can international students do an AI internship in the US? Usually, through CPT or OPT. Your DSO authorizes CPT before you start, and a year of full-time CPT removes OPT eligibility at that degree level.
Do AI internships lead to full-time offers? Often. NACE reports a 63.1% intern conversion rate for 2024-25, and IMC states that strong interns can secure a full-time researcher role.
Should I apply to more than one role at the same company? Usually not. Hudson River Trading allows one application per candidate, and Pinterest asks you to apply once across the US and Canada.
How do I spot a fake AI internship? Any request to pay, buy equipment or forward money from a deposited check is a scam, according to the FTC. Confirm the posting on the employer's own site.
Are levels.fyi internship salaries reliable? They are self-reported by users, so treat them as a rough guide and rely on the employer's posted range.