War Of Tech Giants! Elon Musk Hikes Salaries Of Tesla AI Engineers To Prevent Poaching By OpenAI

It¡¯s getting brutal out there! Tech giants, primarily AI companies, are waging a war among each other to get the best talent onboard. In a bid to prevent poaching,particularly by his arch nemesis Sam Altman, billionaire Elon Musk has given lucrative hikes to Tesla¡¯s AI engineers.

"Tesla is increasing comp (contingent on progress milestones) of our AI engineering team," Musk posted on X.

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What Led To Musk Taking This Drastic Measure?

This move was triggered when Tesla engineer Ethan Knight almost joined Sam Altman¡¯s OpenAI. Without wasting any time, Musk offered him a role in his new startup xAI.

He further posted, "Ethan was going to join OpenAI, so it was either xAI or them. They have been aggressively recruiting Tesla engineers with massive compensation offers and have unfortunately been successful in a few cases."

Ethan is very talented, but ¡°vision chief¡± would be overstating things.

There are over 200 excellent engineers in the Tesla AI/Autonomy team. Tesla¡¯s pace of progress with autonomy is accelerating.

The talent war for AI is the craziest talent war I¡¯ve ever seen!

¡ª Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 3, 2024

The decision highlights the fierce competition for AI expertise among technology firms vying for supremacy in the industry. OpenAI's aggressive hiring efforts, characterized by generous salary packages, have escalated the competition for qualified individuals in this specialized field.

"The talent war for AI is the craziest talent war I've ever seen," said Musk.

Elon Musk And Sam Altman¡¯s Equation

indiatimes

Elon Musk, one of the co-founders of OpenAI, has a contentious relationship with Altman and has filed a lawsuit against him for purported breaches of contract. The Tesla autopilot team appears to be a focal point, as Knight becomes the fourth engineer to depart for Musk's ventures, according to reports.

Tesla Investors Have Concerns About Musk¡¯s Strategy

This development raises concerns among Tesla investors. Musk's tendency to employ unconventional methods, such as transferring staff across companies, raises apprehensions, especially as Tesla's primary car business experiences a slowdown.

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Furthermore, a recent court case brought to light the limited oversight exercised by Tesla's board concerning these staff reallocations.

Certain shareholders are expressing ethical concerns regarding Musk's utilization of Tesla resources for his personal endeavors, particularly in light of his warnings to pursue AI development outside of Tesla should his compensation package not receive approval.

Even Meta Chief Mark Zuckerberg Is Looking For AI Researchers

Mark Zuckerberg | Photo: Reuters

Zuckerberg recently contacted AI researchers at Google's DeepMind directly through email, as per reports. One of these individuals disclosed that Zuckerberg highlighted the importance of AI to Meta in his email and expressed optimism about potential collaboration between the two entities.

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