Get All Access for $5/mo

Elon Musk Says He's Raising Tesla Engineer Salaries Because OpenAI Has Been Aggressively Poaching Them With Massive Paydays Even Mark Zuckerberg and Sergey Brin are reportedly making personal calls to AI researchers to scoop up new talent or convince current employees to stay.

By Kwan Wei Kevin Tan

Key Takeaways

  • Elon Musk says he's hiking the salaries for those working on Tesla's AI engineering team.
  • The pay raise, Musk said, was because OpenAI has been "aggressively recruiting Tesla engineers."
  • "The talent war for AI is the craziest talent war I've ever seen!" Musk said.
Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto | Getty Images; Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images via Business Insider
Tesla CEO Elon Musk (left) and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman (right).

This article originally appeared on Business Insider.

AI engineers working at Tesla may have Sam Altman and OpenAI to thank for their salary bumps.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on Wednesday that his company is increasing the compensation packages for those working on the AI engineering team. The pay raise, Musk said, was in response to OpenAI's attempts to poach Tesla's engineers.

"They have been aggressively recruiting Tesla engineers with massive compensation offers and have unfortunately been successful in a few cases," Musk said of OpenAI's hiring efforts in an X post on Wednesday.

Musk made the remarks in response to a story by The Information that was published on the same day. According to the report, Tesla machine-learning scientist Ethan Knight is moving over to join Musk's AI company, xAI.

"Ethan was going to join OpenAI, so it was either xAI or them," Musk wrote on X.

Representatives for OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.

Competition for AI talent has been heating up as tech companies race to become dominant players in the field. Aside from offering eye-watering salaries, some Big Tech leaders have adopted a personal touch when it comes to wooing engineers.

Meta's Mark Zuckerberg has been reportedly writing personal emails to AI researchers at Google's DeepMind, per The Information. In fact, Zuckerberg's Meta has even offered jobs to candidates without conducting any interviews, the outlet reported.

It's not just Zuckerberg's who's had to do personal reachouts. Google cofounder Sergey Brin had to personally call an employee who was thinking of leaving Google for OpenAI. According to The Information's report, Brin made several promises to convince the employee to stay, including an offer of higher pay.

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

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

Editor's Pick

Growing a Business

4 Ways I Grew My Business From Startup to 17 Years of Sustained Success

Whatever the future holds, remembering these four lessons will help sustain and scale your startup to a lasting legacy.

Side Hustle

This 20-Year-Old Student Started a Side Hustle With $400 — and It Earned $150,000 Over the Summer

Jacob Shaidle launched his barbecue cleaning business Shaidle Cleaning in 2021 when he was just 15.

Business News

Barbara Corcoran Says This Is the One Question to Ask Before Selling Your Home

Barbara Corcoran sold The Corcoran Group in 2001 for $66 million.

Business News

Google Says It Won't Follow Amazon's Lead With a Return-to-Office Mandate — Yet

In a town hall, Google leaders told staff the current hybrid plan will stay in place.

Business News

'Not a Big Deal': Barbara Corcoran Says the NAR Ruling Hasn't Had Much of an Impact So Far

The ruling removes the commission rate that home sellers are expected to pay.