Fresh waves of layoffs have already seen more than 80,000 tech employees cut from their roles this year, but a new report from VC firm SignalFire reveals that major tech firms are excelling at attracting and holding on to top talent.

SignalFire’s report, Inside the Best Engineering Cultures in Tech, shows that firms like Google, Netflix, Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon are among an elite group of firms achieving both high talent density and high retention, allowing them to build engineering orgs at scale, employing more than 2,000 engineers each.

Big tech companies including Nvidia, ServiceNow, Netflix and Uber are adding new engineering staff members up to three times faster than they’re losing them, according to SignalFire, compared to the likes of other major firms like Tesla, Bloomberg and retail giant Walmart, which are losing talent faster than they can acquire fresh faces.

Unsurprisingly, however, AI-dedicated firms are leading the way. Anthropic was found to have added the most new engineers over the past twelve months, with about 150% more engineers joining than leaving, followed by OpenAI, with roughly 120%.

Meta, meanwhile, has about 110% more engineers joining than leaving, evidence of its recent push into AI development, which has seen the firm poaching AI researchers from the likes of OpenAI with pay packets stretching to hundreds of millions of dollars.  

Other tech firms haven’t been growing their engineering teams with as much success. The figures show that Microsoft, Amazon, Apple and even Google have fallen behind, adding fewer new engineers to their teams per headcount than the likes of Atlassian, Stripe and Snowflake.     

But while a handful of firms are growing at an exponential rate, others are proving more capable at holding onto the staff they have. The report found that Google, Snowflake and Nvidia have had the most success at retaining engineering talent, with just shy of 70% staying on past the four years.

Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Adobe stand out in particular, with their engineers often staying often staying beyond five years.

That compares to firms like Walmart, Robinhood and Uber, with retention rates hovering around the 35% – 40% mark, and even Amazon, which despite having seen steady growth of around 10% since 2022, has suffered a comparatively meager 50% engineering retention.

After analysing twenty years of data, SignalFire’s said the figures show that firms intentionally building cultures that keep top engineers engaged, empowered, and mission-aligned are winning the talent race.

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The VC firm said that engineers appear to be drawn to firms offering ‘growth without chaos’, and those balancing technical challenges with sustainability.

Netflix, for example, was found to be hiring fewer engineers, but retains what SignalFire called some of the industry’s most elite talent by prioritising focus, autonomy, and a commitment to craft.

The companies best equipped to hold on to their talent, the report argues, are those where engineers are able to engage in meaningful work and grow professionally. Building that kind of culture is difficult, taking strong technical leadership that encourages excellence while maintaining a healthy pace of work and psychological safety.

“Engineers don’t just go where the jobs are,” concludes the report. “They go where they believe the engineering culture offers growth, challenge, support, and peer quality.”